Results 4,541-4,560 of 18,593 for speaker:Michael Creed

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Common Agricultural Policy Negotiations (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: The new regulations for the CAP 2021-27 were launched on Friday 1 June 2018 by Commissioner Hogan. The proposals, as drafted, involve significant changes, including in relation to governance, the distribution of direct payments among farmers and the increasing environmental conditionality attaching to such payments. Ireland will work constructively on the CAP proposals with the European...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Beef Industry (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: My Department has consistently provided significant support for the suckler sector and will continue to do so, in preparation for the next iteration of the CAP. Earlier this year I was pleased to secure an allocation of €20 million in the 2019 Budget for a new pilot scheme for suckler farmers, specifically aimed at further improving the carbon efficiency of beef production. The...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: My Department has provided €20 million in budget 2019 for a new pilot scheme for suckler farmers, specifically aimed at further improving the carbon efficiency of beef production. The Beef Environmental Efficiency Pilot (BEEP) will target the weaning efficiency of suckler cows and calves - measuring the liveweight of the calf at weaning as a percentage of the cow's liveweight....

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Commonage Framework Plans (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: The commencement of the 2018 advance payments in respect of the Green, Low-Carbon, Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS) was announced on 14 November 2018. The first payrun saw over €116m paid to over 33,000 participants under the scheme. In the two payruns since we have p[aid an additional 6,500 participants. These payments commenced two weeks earlier than last year and saw an additional...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Identification Schemes (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: My Department is at an advanced stage of development to provide a calf birth registration application that will be accessible on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets for farmers who are already registered for Agfood.ie services. In the initial phase farmers will be able to register calf birth details directly with the Department’s Animal Identification and Movement (AIM)...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Areas of Natural Constraint Scheme (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: Under the current Rural Development Regulation (and subsequent amendments under the Omnibus Regulation) Member States are required to change the approach to the designation of land under the Areas of Natural Constraints Scheme. To date my Department had been identifying eligible areas using a range of socio economic indicators such as family farm income, population density, percentage of...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Beef Industry (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: The quality payment system for beef was introduced a number of years ago following intensive negotiations between Meat Industry Ireland and the farmers representatives. The payment system makes use of Carcase Grade sub-classes to determine the price paid, with the aim of rewarding farmers for producing the better quality and higher value carcases. The question of the price paid for...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Milk Supply Regulation (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: As the Deputy is aware, in recent years the EU has accumulated large amounts of public intervention stocks of skimmed milk powder (SMP), which are overhanging the dairy market and providing negative effects on wider dairy markets and market sentiment. In the 2015-2017 period a total of 405,478 tonnes of SMP were bought in to public intervention. The sale of intervention SMP stocks is held...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Grants (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: The Afforestation Grant and Premium Scheme is a voluntary State-funded programme which supports and attracts a wide range of recipients; farmers, non-farmers, partnerships and companies annually. The vast majority however of forest owners are farmers and there is no distinction in terms of payment rates between farmers and non-farmers. The profile of non-farmers also includes retired...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Welfare (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: The Minister has not met the organisation in question to discuss this issue. Matters of this nature should be reported to An Garda Siochana and to the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Brexit Supports (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: One of my priorities is to improve access to finance for the agri-food sector. Food Wise 2025 identifies competiveness as a key theme and includes a recommendation that stakeholders work to “improve access to finance for agriculture, forestry and seafood producers and agri-food companies”. The Future Growth Loan Scheme is being developed by my Department and the Department...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Beef Industry (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: As the Deputy will be aware, in accordance with competition law, neither I nor my Department have any role in determining market prices for any commodity, nor can I intervene in this process. I am conscious that this has been a difficult year for the sector in terms of weather and the range of challenges associated with it. We have to acknowledge that input costs at farm level will be...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Scheme Payments (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: I am very aware of the significance to farmers and the wider rural economy of the payments that issue to farmers from my Department under a range of schemes. With this in mind, my Department continues to issue payments under these schemes as a matter of priority. Payments under the 2018 Areas of Natural Constraint scheme commenced, on schedule, during the week commencing 17th September...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Hare Coursing Regulation (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: First, I would like to recall the major improvements in animal welfare that have taken place in recent years. You will recall that my colleague Simon Coveney brought forward major legislative reform in the form of the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2103, replacing legislation going back over a hundred years. This legislation enshrined the Five Freedoms concept and introduced mandatory...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Trade Missions (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: In 2018 my Department continued to open new markets and deepen trade within existing markets for Irish agri-food exporters, the highlight of which was probably the decision of the Chinese authorities to open their market to Irish beef imports by listing a number of approved Irish beef establishments. Other notable achievements were agreements with Qatar and Kuwait which allowed for the...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Greenhouse Gas Emissions (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: My Department is actively engaged as part of the whole of Government approach to transitioning to a low-carbon, competitive, sustainable and climate resilient economy and society. A key part of this cross-government approach has been the development of the National Mitigation Plan (NMP) to which my Department contributed a series of mitigation actions and measures for the agriculture and...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Brexit Issues (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: The agri-food sector is of critical importance to the Irish economy, and its regional spread means it underpins the socio-economic development of rural Ireland in particular. As such, Brexit has the potential to have a very significant impact on farmers and on the agri-food sector throughout Ireland, including farmers in the border counties. The Government has, from the outset, been...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sheep Census (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: There is currently a facility on the Agfood.ie site for farmers to submit their annual sheep and goat census figures to the Animal Identification and Movement (AIM) database and to view their historical sheep and goat census data. Furthermore there is a facility on the website for farmers to order books of personalised sheep dispatch/movement document books and to view their order history...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Harness Racing Industry (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: In March 2018, my Department agreed to fund the preparation and development of a Five Year Strategic Plan for the Irish Harness Racing Association and the sector. The report was recently received and Department officials are currently examining its contents. My Department had previously funded the Indecon Report of the Irish Harness Racing Sector, which was published on 1st November 2017....

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Areas of Natural Constraint Scheme (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: Under the current Rural Development Regulation (and subsequent amendments under the Omnibus Regulation) Member States are required to change the approach to the designation of land under the Areas of Natural Constraints Scheme. To date my Department had been identifying eligible areas using a range of socio economic indicators such as family farm income, population density, percentage of...