Results 441-460 of 766 for speaker:Pippa Hackett
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Afforestation and the Forestry Sector: Discussion (13 Apr 2022)
Pippa Hackett: They are two separate issues. I accept that the planting is a responsibility of my Department. However, we do not own or plant the land. We need to engage and, as the Deputy rightly said, communicate positively-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Afforestation and the Forestry Sector: Discussion (13 Apr 2022)
Pippa Hackett: Can the Deputy please repeat that?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Afforestation and the Forestry Sector: Discussion (13 Apr 2022)
Pippa Hackett: We do not hold it up. We try to operate as efficiently as we can within the constraints of the environmental legislation. There is no getting around that. I can assure the Deputy that everyone wants a solution, nobody more so than my own officials.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Afforestation and the Forestry Sector: Discussion (13 Apr 2022)
Pippa Hackett: I am glad to say that Irish Rural Link has engaged with, as far as I understand, all the Save groups. It is part of my review process for the new strategy.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Afforestation and the Forestry Sector: Discussion (13 Apr 2022)
Pippa Hackett: That is where we are moving towards in terms of a strategy. We need to get a-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Afforestation and the Forestry Sector: Discussion (13 Apr 2022)
Pippa Hackett: We are waiting to see what comes out of the public consultation and what we engage with in the strategy. That will help form our future strategy for the next ten, 15 and 20 or even 100 years.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Afforestation and the Forestry Sector: Discussion (13 Apr 2022)
Pippa Hackett: Not at the moment. I am not going to pre-empt any proposals just now. We will wait-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Afforestation and the Forestry Sector: Discussion (13 Apr 2022)
Pippa Hackett: I am sorry, perhaps I misinterpreted what the Deputy asked. Currently, we have changed how we plant at the moment. I accept absolutely the concerns of those communities because when those trees were planted 20 or 30 years there was no setback distance and they were right up against roads, rivers and houses. There is a setback now. There is a greater requirement for spaces for biodiversity.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Afforestation and the Forestry Sector: Discussion (13 Apr 2022)
Pippa Hackett: I am not going to pre-empt any proposals. We will deal with them following the strategy and the consultation.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Afforestation and the Forestry Sector: Discussion (13 Apr 2022)
Pippa Hackett: At the outset, I would like to address this issue. I did not hear all of the interactions from the previous sitting. In the past, there have been personalised attacks in this room against officials in my Department. It is entirely wrong. I do not think it is appropriate and I call on Deputies, Senators and others to desist from that. It is just not right to identify people in my...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Afforestation and the Forestry Sector: Discussion (13 Apr 2022)
Pippa Hackett: My officials are working incredibly hard to address the dysfunctionality in the system.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Afforestation and the Forestry Sector: Discussion (13 Apr 2022)
Pippa Hackett: Yes, and I can assure Deputy Carthy that my officials are working incredibly hard to address the efficiency and effectiveness of the processes in place. That is certainly the case in the past year and a half to two years and they will continue to do that. People deny there have been any improvements but there have been improvements and the figures are there, not as quickly as many would...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Afforestation and the Forestry Sector: Discussion (13 Apr 2022)
Pippa Hackett: We have an organisational review, which is about to get under way.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Afforestation and the Forestry Sector: Discussion (13 Apr 2022)
Pippa Hackett: We have tendered it out to a third party to do that.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Afforestation and the Forestry Sector: Discussion (13 Apr 2022)
Pippa Hackett: No, it was not the Deputy but people have generally done it.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Afforestation and the Forestry Sector: Discussion (13 Apr 2022)
Pippa Hackett: No, I said some members are, which I think is accurate.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Afforestation and the Forestry Sector: Discussion (13 Apr 2022)
Pippa Hackett: As the Deputy knows, we have doubled what we intend to issue in licences.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Afforestation and the Forestry Sector: Discussion (13 Apr 2022)
Pippa Hackett: The target would be to plant the licences we issue and to get a big chunk of those licences that are sitting there.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Afforestation and the Forestry Sector: Discussion (13 Apr 2022)
Pippa Hackett: It depends on what we get in, but if the average afforestation licence is for 7,000 ha, multiplied by the number of licences, we cannot pre-empt what size of area is involved. Potentially, licences for approximately 9,000 ha could be issued this year.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Afforestation and the Forestry Sector: Discussion (13 Apr 2022)
Pippa Hackett: Our target is that we will issue licences for-----