Results 4,401-4,420 of 7,985 for speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Returning to the documents we were sent by the Department - they are very helpful, as is the dashboard - the COFORD Council report in 2018 stated that 3.2 million cu. m of timber was harvested in the Republic. On the island in total, there was processing of some 4.9 million cu. m. That is the COFORD Council report, so I obviously believe it. On the Department's dashboard, it is stated that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The statement from the Minister of State referred to 761,213 cu. m having been licensed in October. That timber is not available, obviously. The guts of 20 million cu. m over two years, if we go by the Department, has been put on the dashboard. That is there. Where is the timber? Why is there a shortage if the Department states that there is all this licensing?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The focus is not on cubic metres of timber ready for cutting.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Why would they wait two years or five years? Is thinning included?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Do we have a breakdown comparing volumes of thinning timber and felling timber?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Michael Fitzmaurice: We did not get that on the dashboard.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Michael Fitzmaurice: As for the methodology, the whole system is in crisis.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I do not know how the witness can say that when thinning is included. A hectare of thinning is totally different to a hectare of felling timber at 30 years.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I want to move on. How many licences are stuck in the Department's system at the moment?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Michael Fitzmaurice: When I extrapolated from the Department's figures in the last few days I worked out that 3,916 applications have been stuck with the Department since 2017. That includes 2,056 licences for felling and 1,022 for planting over an area of 9,369 ha. There were also outstanding applications for 738 ha of forest road, which corresponds to 300 km. One has to go through quite a bit of hassle to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Michael Fitzmaurice: We have worked it out. I got the industry to calculate it. Why is the Department saying there are 1,900 licences when we have calculated that more than twice that number are stuck in the Department? I have the figures here. We can give Mr. Hayes a copy of them. He does not seem to know where we are.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I refer to the period from 2017 to now.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I am talking about applications that are stuck in the Department.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Very well. The planting target for Ireland for the four-year period from 2017 to 2020 was 31,140 ha. To date the Department has licensed the planting of 15,109 ha. That is less than 50% of the target. There is a shortfall of 15,000 ha. We have climate targets. Farmers are being kicked around because of cows. This system has failed over several years. I wish the Minister of State the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Michael Fitzmaurice: We are behind by 15,000 ha. Does the Minister of State have faith in this Department? Personnel have been in place looking at this for ten years. The habitats directive was introduced in 2011. It is there for everyone to see. Departments were told about it. I was not even in politics at the time and I knew about the 15 km rule. This Department watched over this. This is a mess and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The crisis is ongoing.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Michael Fitzmaurice: That was because we did not do them right, even though we had ten years to look at the directive.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Michael Fitzmaurice: If one starts building a house by putting in the wrong foundations, it will stay wrong.

Regulation of Private Security Firms Bill 2019: Second Stage [Private Members] (12 Nov 2020)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on this matter. I support Deputy Ó Laoghaire's Bill. This issue was talked about last year and the year before. I welcome that the Minister of State is accepting the Bill but I note that the Government is talking about bringing in its own legislation on this matter. As Deputy Howlin pointed out, we all knew a year ago or two...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Regulation on Veterinary Medicinal Products: Discussion (12 Nov 2020)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I thank our guests for their presentations. Mr. Scott stated the derogation outlined in Article 105(4) is available to Ireland to use to solve this problem. I just want to be clear on that. Can either of the witnesses say how active vets have been on the Health Products Regulatory Authority, HPRA, in recent years? I believe this can be resolved. I got a phone call from the Minister's...