Results 6,261-6,280 of 6,944 for speaker:Michael McNamara

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Feb 2014)

Michael McNamara: The lack of compensation applies to section 14. Could the Minister of State obtain legal advice on the ordering of the removal of materials beside a forest where there is no compensatory provision?

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Feb 2014)

Michael McNamara: I am flagging the issue of legal advice. The same issue of compensation arises.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Feb 2014)

Michael McNamara: As I stated earlier, this Bill examines the forestry sector while ignoring the elephant in the room, Coillte. There is a dominant player in the Irish forestry sector and that dominant player is State-owned. If one thinks that forestry is a market, which to an extent it is, everybody who wants to plant a few acres will end up competing with Coillte. I do not have a problem with how the...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Feb 2014)

Michael McNamara: That is fair.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Feb 2014)

Michael McNamara: There are two methods by which Bills can be put through these Houses. Ministers can try to railroad them through or they try to take on board concerns expressed at committee. If Ministers are not prepared to take on concerns expressed at committee, what is the point in having a Committee Stage? Why do we not put the Bill through in two hours of a Friday afternoon?

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Feb 2014)

Michael McNamara: There are not that many amendments being considered, in fairness.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Feb 2014)

Michael McNamara: What process has there been heretofore? There has been a Second Stage debate.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Feb 2014)

Michael McNamara: Yes.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Feb 2014)

Michael McNamara: They are.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Feb 2014)

Michael McNamara: There is one other point I wish to make.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Feb 2014)

Michael McNamara: There is one point I wish to make with regard to section 7 which I was not allowed to make and I would like to make it now.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Feb 2014)

Michael McNamara: Has legal advice been obtained that it is acceptable to refuse a felling licence in respect of plantation that has been grown with the benefit of planning permission to the effect that a felling licence can be refused without any compensation measures?

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Feb 2014)

Michael McNamara: The issue is-----

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Feb 2014)

Michael McNamara: My question is more about whether a felling licence can be refused in respect of a commercial plantation without compensation.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Feb 2014)

Michael McNamara: Yes, an approved-----

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Feb 2014)

Michael McNamara: Can a felling licence-----

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Feb 2014)

Michael McNamara: Yes, but I am trying to make this as clear as possible. I appreciate that the Minister of State might not be able to answer this now but, in advance of Report Stage or when we come back to this, he might obtain legal advice as to whether it is constitutionally acceptable to deny a felling licence for an approved plantation without any compensation or compensatory measures.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Feb 2014)

Michael McNamara: I thank the Minister of State.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Feb 2014)

Michael McNamara: I have three primary concerns about the Bill, one of which relates to the refusal of felling licences without compensation. If one grows a commercial crop, regardless of whether it is wheat or Sitka spruce, one does so in order to bring it to market. If one cannot bring one's crop to market, then I am of the view that this is an interference with one's property rights. Those rights are...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Feb 2014)

Michael McNamara: I agree with the Minister of State’s objective of making it easier for people to get into forestry because we need to attract people into forestry. How does this Bill simplify the process? What red tape does it remove? What is removed from a previous Act that this Bill repeals to make it easier to get into forestry? I would love to think I was part of a Dáil that made it...