Results 6,681-6,700 of 18,593 for speaker:Michael Creed

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Common Agricultural Policy Negotiations (28 Mar 2018)

Michael Creed: An EU Agriculture Council of Ministers was held on 19 March 2018. The main item on the Council agenda was the Presidency's draft council conclusions on CAP post 2020, which ran to 40 paragraphs. The aim of the draft Council conclusions is to provide guidance to the European Commission on the drafting of legislative proposals, which are expected to be published in early June 2018. ...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: GLAS Applications (28 Mar 2018)

Michael Creed: The person named was approved into GLAS 1 with a contract commencement date of 1 October 2015 and has received full payments in respect of the 2015 scheme year. The outstanding Nutrient Management Plan has now been correctly submitted to the  system operated by Teagasc. The case is now being processed through the required validation checks. Once the application...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Staff Data (28 Mar 2018)

Michael Creed: The percentages of persons in my Department with a disability are as follows: - Full Time FTE percentage = 4.28% - Headcount Percentage = 4.08% Under Part 5 of the Disability Act 2005 (Section 47(4)), a public body shall ensure, unless there is good reason to the contrary for not doing so, that not less than 3% of the persons employed by it are persons with disabilities. In that regard I...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (27 Mar 2018)

Michael Creed: I am pleased to meet with the committee for this valuable opportunity to review our progress and how we are navigating through the current challenges and opportunities presented across the various sectors in agriculture, food development, marine and forestry. The recently launched National Development Plan 2018-2027 re-affirmed the Government’s commitment to protecting and enhancing...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (27 Mar 2018)

Michael Creed: On the general issue of food safety and animal health in programme one, it is probably not widely recognised that this constitutes the key activity of the Department in terms of resources and personnel. Because there is so much at stake in the context of our international reputation, we are constantly engaged in supervision and inspections to ensure that we continue to operate at the highest...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (27 Mar 2018)

Michael Creed: Yes. The figure was an increase of 145 on the previous year.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (27 Mar 2018)

Michael Creed: I understand the number of animals affected increased by approximately 300 from 16,900 to 17,200.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (27 Mar 2018)

Michael Creed: I responded to Deputy Cahill on this issue. My net message is that it is a matter for individual farmers to ensure they have an adequate supply of fodder. There are two ways of interpreting the data in respect of the initiative the Department introduced. However, it is too early to draw conclusions. It may be the case that further applications will be submitted by farmers who are getting...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (27 Mar 2018)

Michael Creed: Teagasc's involvement was to carry out an assessment of the level of need in the north west, engage with farmers and provide the Department with advice. It was not involved in a prescriptive manner in the initiative the Department subsequently formulated. As I stated, we continue to monitor the national position.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (27 Mar 2018)

Michael Creed: As I stated, the Department continues to monitor the position and we do not have any initiative planned, either on transport or any other form of fodder delivery to farmers. I return to my original point that this is, in the first instance, a matter for farmers to resolve. We have introduced a transport subsidy which is available in certain circumstances. That was the appropriate response...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (27 Mar 2018)

Michael Creed: As I stated, we continue to monitor the position.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (27 Mar 2018)

Michael Creed: I hear Deputies Danny Healy Rae, McConalogue and Cahill and others who have raised the issue. We continue to monitor the situation. We are approaching 1 April and, normally, we would expect that grass growth would be ahead of where it is now and that would deliver a solution. I accept that the forecast for the weekend is for cold weather and that is worrying. However, we continue to...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (27 Mar 2018)

Michael Creed: I will endeavour to get as much information as I can on TAMS but, off the top of my head, we are paying out in excess of €1 million a week. I think we paid out €1.6 million either last week or the week before that. We have provided €70 million in the budget for-----

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (27 Mar 2018)

Michael Creed: No. They are being paid as they are being cleared for payment. There is no undue delay. As in Deputy Danny Healy-Rae's case, if the Chairman knows of any individual case we will certainly investigate it. I will answer questions in no particular order. On the issue of the sheep scheme, which Deputy McConalogue and others raised, in the context of the difference between the 2017 and 2018...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (27 Mar 2018)

Michael Creed: The point I am making is that there is not the head room.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (27 Mar 2018)

Michael Creed: There was not originally in terms of the €25 million. That opportunity has passed. In truth, our problem with the RDP, and I can deal with this in greater detail, is that our Estimate is that we will overspend on it by approximately €106 million over the lifetime of the programme. If we take areas of natural constraint, ANC, liabilities into account, it could be more....

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (27 Mar 2018)

Michael Creed: That was the target, but they were to apply-----

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (27 Mar 2018)

Michael Creed: No.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (27 Mar 2018)

Michael Creed: The original commitment was that we would meet the liability if everybody applied, which was 2.5 million ewes at €10 per ewe. Not all of them applied, so the liability ended up at approximately €20 million. In 2017, we paid an advance on that. The balancing liability will be paid in the second quarter of 2018. On Deputy Corcoran Kennedy's point about organics, we have...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (27 Mar 2018)

Michael Creed: -----Glenisk, which has a fantastic profile for its range of products. There is almost an insatiable demand for organic products on the dairy side and on the tillage side as well, but that is our commitment in terms of organics. The Deputy also raised a point about protein crops. Under the Common Agricultural Policy, we currently provide approximately €3 million for protein crops....