Results 5,181-5,200 of 23,948 for speaker:Charlie McConalogue

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (2 Mar 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I was delighted to see that so many farmers applied for ACRES, indicating their willingness to farm for the benefit of the environment and society.  The submission of over 46,000 applications shows the level of interest in participating in an agri-environment scheme.  The Scheme forms part of Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027 which is the successor to Ireland’s...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (2 Mar 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I was delighted to see that so many farmers applied for ACRES, indicating their willingness to farm for the benefit of the environment and society.  The submission of over 46,000 applications shows the level of interest in participating in an agri-environment scheme.  The Scheme forms part of Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027 which is the successor to Ireland’s...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Diseases (2 Mar 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: When cattle are slaughtered as reactors under the TB eradication programme, it is because they have tested positive for infection with TB. It is not routine to culture all TB reactors. In 2022, 23,393 (provisional figure) cattle have been slaughtered as reactors under the TB eradication programme, as they are deemed to be infected with the TB disease agent. The test specificity is...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Diseases (2 Mar 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: As the organism that causes TB in cattle is a particularly slow growing organism, the maximum length of time for the culture process, including speciation of bacteria is 10 weeks in conformity with international standards. The minimum length of the time for the culture process for positive samples, including speciation of bacteria is approximately three weeks. The minimum length of...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Public Sector Pensions (2 Mar 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: Rásaíocht Con Éireann (RCÉ) is a commercial state body, established under the Greyhound Industry Act, 1958 chiefly to control greyhound racing and to improve and develop the greyhound industry. RCÉ is a body corporate and a separate legal entity to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.  The question raised by the Deputy is an...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (2 Mar 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: The EU regulations (Article 17 of EU Regulation 1305/2013) that provide for the TAMS scheme under the RDP 2014 – 2020, specify that TAMS II beneficiaries must be farmers or groups of farmers. The regulatory transitional provisions for support from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) in the years 2021 and 2022 do not alter this definition.  These are...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse Racing Industry (2 Mar 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) is a commercial state body established under the Horse and Greyhound Racing Act, 2001, and is responsible for the overall administration, promotion and development of the horse racing industry.  The question raised by the Deputy is an operational matter for HRI, therefore, the question has been referred to the body for direct reply.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Mar 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: That is fine.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Mar 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: This is an important issue and the direction of travel in terms of what we want to achieve here is to improve the biodiversity and environmental assets we have in our countryside. That is very much the objective of the various schemes we have in place. Under the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, and, in particular, the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS, previously,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Mar 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: We engaged very closely with the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, and across Government Departments. The Deputy is right that co-operation measures are the way to go here. There are lots of steps we need to take on land management but also birdlife management and providing habitats that require farmers to work together. That is why the co-operation measures are in place. Working...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Mar 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: Absolutely. I can indeed. The Deputy is correct. Particularly around the setting of the climate targets and what the figure would be for agriculture, there was a sense out there among some that what we were talking about was a percentage reduction in food production or a percentage reduction in our herd. That is not what we want to do. We want to cut and reduce our emissions profile....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Mar 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Mar 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: Perfect. I respect the Deputy’s acknowledgement of the ongoing work. He played a massive role in setting this course when he was Minister responsible for our initial climate action plan and putting in place metrics as to how that would be monitored. On the biodigestion and anaerobic digestion, our target is that by 2030, 10% of all of our national gas requirement will be produced...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Mar 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: Yes, we can. It will be a challenge but every effort we are making is to deliver on the 2025 target. Certainly, the 2025 target is as a significant a challenge as the 2030 one given the timescale involved. We are making progress. Now that we have set the targets, our whole emphasis is delivery on them.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Mar 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: On the circular economy and minimising waste, we have the Food Vision 2030 strategy, which sets out an overview of that. I will come back to the Deputy specifically with an update on his question. On carbon farming, we see great potential. At the moment, at European level, we do not have capacity to do carbon farming or have payment specifically for it. There is not a European-wide...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Mar 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: It certainly would. We have to make sure farmers and the work they are doing are at the centre of that income stream as well. On the land use strategy, we just completely part 1 of the land use strategy and we are now commencing the second part of it. We have much more assessment to do as well in fully quantifying what is happening in our land. That is the whole objective behind the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Mar 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: We have to be able to make sure that the measures we put in place are going to count and achieve the reductions that we want them to. We want them to be validated by the EPA. Already there are a number of feed additives on the European market. Over the past year five different additives have been tested. One has been approved in the past few months. That shows that up to 30% can be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Mar 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: That is through a feed supplement. So far it has been tested mostly in housed systems. Most countries have fully housed systems where we only house animals for about four or five months a year. Teagasc is doing a great deal of work on testing and validating also.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Mar 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I cannot give an answer to that question because technological innovation and work on this are happening at the moment. Ideally we would like to see it explore the potential for slow release feed boluses to be able to work in grazing situations, where it is not necessarily-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Mar 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: We do not. Because of that we have not plugged in any part of our targets from grazing.