Results 401-420 of 7,404 for speaker:Mick Wallace

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Foreign Policy (6 Feb 2019)

Mick Wallace: I am sorry that the Tánaiste eventually gave in to pressure from the Americans, but we will see how it develops. In 2015 the former American President, Barack Obama, introduced sanctions against the Maduro Government. They were designed to make the people suffer by depriving them of food and medicine, as well as the Venezuelan Government of money to run the country. It is an ongoing...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Foreign Policy (6 Feb 2019)

Mick Wallace: Did they learn anything from supporting the intervention in Libya?

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Foreign Policy (6 Feb 2019)

Mick Wallace: Did they learn anything from the regime change effort in Syria or the demolition they supported in Afghanistan?

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Foreign Policy (6 Feb 2019)

Mick Wallace: They allowed Shannon Airport to be used in destroying hundreds of thousands of lives in Afghanistan. Will Fianna Fáil ever learn anything? Is it any wonder the Taoiseach is not afraid of that party?

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Foreign Policy (6 Feb 2019)

Mick Wallace: I should address some of the points that Deputy Niall Collins raised. Elections in Venezuela are normally held in December but in December 2017 and January 2018 there were talks between the government and the opposition in Venezuela. The opposition insisted on the election being held in early summer and the government caved in and agreed. The opposition was warned by the Americans that it...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Forestry Data (6 Feb 2019)

Mick Wallace: The evidence coming my way is different. Forest management in Ireland is in crisis and we are creating another environmental disaster by doing what is immediately, financially and politically expedient rather than what is good for the people of our country, the Irish environment and the future of the planet. We have the second-lowest tree cover in the EU after Malta, which means we need to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Forestry Data (6 Feb 2019)

Mick Wallace: We are probably reading different research. The Minister of State should send his to me and I will send mine to him. John Murray of the Murray Timber Group has gone on record to say:Sitka spruce, while there seems to be an awful lot of talk about monoculture, is the equivalent of a Friesian cow - that's what it does for the industry. The nearest performer, as a native Irish cow, produces...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Forestry Data (6 Feb 2019)

Mick Wallace: Are those species native to that region?

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Forestry Data (6 Feb 2019)

Mick Wallace: Are we planting Douglas fir?

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Forestry Data (6 Feb 2019)

Mick Wallace: 10. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the percentage of managed forest that is planted with sitka spruce; the timeline during which the trees are allowed to grow before they are felled; the end use for the trees in terms of percentage for timber, biomass and so on; the pesticides, insecticides and fungicides used on Sitka spruce; the average use of each per square metre...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Forestry Data (6 Feb 2019)

Mick Wallace: We spoke earlier about the beef and dairy sectors and the many indirect forms of emissions, pollution and damage to the environment they may cause. The carbon sequestration through afforestation programme, which has expanded alongside the expansion of the dairy herd in an ill-thought-out attempt to promote another short-term cash crop, is supposed to help dig us out of our emissions problem....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Greenhouse Gas Emissions (6 Feb 2019)

Mick Wallace: The report dating from 2010 on the green credentials of the dairy sector which has been cited by the Minister for years was rated only satisfactory in terms of the reliability of its data. Saying we produce beef and dairy products better is like saying we frack gas better. Both the beef and dairy sectors and the gas fracking sector are disastrously carbon emitting and must be significantly...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Greenhouse Gas Emissions (6 Feb 2019)

Mick Wallace: What we have seen is emissions rise in parallel with herd numbers. This morning I spoke to a farmer and meat producer from Limerick. His name is Noel O'Connor and he told me that beef farming was on the brink. That is a direct by-product of the Government's decision to increase the size of the dairy herd.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Greenhouse Gas Emissions (6 Feb 2019)

Mick Wallace: There are too many beef animals in the country and the Government is killing the beef farmers.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Greenhouse Gas Emissions (6 Feb 2019)

Mick Wallace: I am trying to help agriculture in the long term.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Greenhouse Gas Emissions (6 Feb 2019)

Mick Wallace: I do.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Greenhouse Gas Emissions (6 Feb 2019)

Mick Wallace: Good Lord is right.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Greenhouse Gas Emissions (6 Feb 2019)

Mick Wallace: Even the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Bruton, and the Taoiseach are coming around and seeing sense in terms of the fact that we must deal with our emissions problem. I can understand it is difficult for the Minister, given that the IFA is so powerful.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Greenhouse Gas Emissions (6 Feb 2019)

Mick Wallace: I am not talking about dismantling the herds but about a change of policy in order that we can get to a better place. I am not talking about doing it overnight, no more than the Poles are going to stop taking coal out of the ground overnight, or the Americans will stop fracking gas. We must move to a better place and change how we do agriculture. The agriculture sector is worth saving. It...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Greenhouse Gas Emissions (6 Feb 2019)

Mick Wallace: Does the Minister admit that there is too much beef produced? The cold storage units are jammed with beef.