Results 741-760 of 2,066 for speaker:Joe Flaherty

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Proposed Changes to River Shannon, Grand and Royal Canals and River Barrow Navigation By-laws: Discussion (21 Sep 2023)

Joe Flaherty: I have two key questions. Waterways Ireland would say that it has to implement blanket charges. It references a model from the UK. Has Mr. Finnegan any experience of that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Proposed Changes to River Shannon, Grand and Royal Canals and River Barrow Navigation By-laws: Discussion (21 Sep 2023)

Joe Flaherty: Before we finish up, I thank everyone for coming in. Obviously they have to go back and deliberate. However, if they could make contact with the committee and advise how long they are giving for the extension to the consultation period, that would be very good. We will discuss this in our meeting next week. I was going to recommend at that meeting that we ask the Minister to pause the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Cost Rental Tenant In Situ Scheme: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (21 Sep 2023)

Joe Flaherty: I will be brief. I commend the Minister, the Department and the local authorities throughout the country. When the winter eviction ban ended, we were given a Doomsday scenario that families would be out on the street, and yet the Minister reacted, his staff reacted and local authorities reacted. We see the figures here today. It is great to hear all sides of the House acknowledge the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Cost Rental Tenant In Situ Scheme: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (21 Sep 2023)

Joe Flaherty: If you go to a housing agency and it is provided through a housing agency, you will not be able to.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Cost Rental Tenant In Situ Scheme: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (21 Sep 2023)

Joe Flaherty: I thank the Minister.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges facing the Horse Sport Industry: Discussion (20 Sep 2023)

Joe Flaherty: I thank the Chair for allowing me to speak now. I also thank all of the speakers for attending. It is great to see such a cross-section from the sector. We are gathered here at what is very much a purple patch for the industry. We have had one of the best summers with regard to sport horse performance. We have had several successes and I know the young Irish junior riders and Irish pony...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges facing the Horse Sport Industry: Discussion (20 Sep 2023)

Joe Flaherty: I am conscious of my speaking time and we have many other speakers who wish to contribute to the discussion. If we look at how Showjumping Ireland’s board was constituted historically, what the organisation might have called the four expert witnesses would have been drawn from the high-performance, breeding and production, equestrian sport and recreation, and coaching and education...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges facing the Horse Sport Industry: Discussion (20 Sep 2023)

Joe Flaherty: Looking at this from the outside, you would have said that would have brought the best of the industry and of those sectors to board level.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges facing the Horse Sport Industry: Discussion (20 Sep 2023)

Joe Flaherty: So, in its wisdom or folly, Horse Sport Ireland decided it would freeze those committees. Is that correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges facing the Horse Sport Industry: Discussion (20 Sep 2023)

Joe Flaherty: It would then decide it would get more diverse sport. Would it not be fair to say the risk of a more diverse sport is that you are going to throw out the baby with the bathwater and the expertise on which this was based, which was the bedrock of those four committees and of horse sport policy and direction for the past 30 years is going to be abandoned? Would it be fair to say that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges facing the Horse Sport Industry: Discussion (20 Sep 2023)

Joe Flaherty: If we were to try to crystallise some of Mr. Corrigan’s group's asks from today, the first thing it would ask is that this process of appointed directors be paused.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges facing the Horse Sport Industry: Discussion (20 Sep 2023)

Joe Flaherty: It is very apparent that there is a rift. It is a bit like marriage counselling here so I am trying to be polite in what I say, but it is very apparent these bodies are at odds with the governing body. There is always friction between the different groups but it is great to see such a united front in the sector. As I said earlier, we are here on the back of unprecedented success. We...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges facing the Horse Sport Industry: Discussion (20 Sep 2023)

Joe Flaherty: Coming out of this, I propose we write to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and ask for a review of the sport horse sector. I am pleased see the representatives acknowledge there is some future role for Horse Sport Ireland, so we might be able to save this marriage to some degree. That is good to see. Such a review obviously needs to take in the different groups here, plus...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges facing the Horse Sport Industry: Discussion (20 Sep 2023)

Joe Flaherty: Okay, very good. I will give Mr. Corrigan a rest for a minute if that is all right. Mr. Fagan is representing ECVOA.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges facing the Horse Sport Industry: Discussion (20 Sep 2023)

Joe Flaherty: On that, we will reach out to the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, on the sports capital grant and the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Martin, to see if we can do anything on that. I referenced the point that many of our best horses are going abroad. Within the industry, does Mr. Fagan see a mechanism whereby we can hold on to those horses or some way...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges facing the Horse Sport Industry: Discussion (20 Sep 2023)

Joe Flaherty: In the minute I have left I might come back to Mr. Corrigan, with reference to what Mr. Fagan has said about the supports the sector needs, such as tax incentives, bursaries and all that. Has Horse Sport Ireland ever done a forensic report on how we need to support the different constituent parts, including, dressage, eventing, para-equestrian, and given it to the Government?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges facing the Horse Sport Industry: Discussion (20 Sep 2023)

Joe Flaherty: Is the fact that is the case when we are on the cusp of extraordinary and probably unprecedented success across the different constituent entities of Horse Sport Ireland not a damning indictment of the organisation? Mr. Corrigan may or may not be able to say.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges facing the Horse Sport Industry: Discussion (20 Sep 2023)

Joe Flaherty: I thank the Chair.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges facing the Horse Sport Industry: Discussion (20 Sep 2023)

Joe Flaherty: I thank the Chairman for letting me back in. It is fair to say we have heard a cry for help today from the sport horse sector, which is founded in a genuine concern among sport horse producers. It is great to see the sector doing so well. The Chairman stopped short of saying it is outperforming racing at this time. It is good to see that. We need to crystallise one point. There might...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges facing the Horse Sport Industry: Discussion (20 Sep 2023)

Joe Flaherty: Mr. Egan wants to come in but I have limited time left. The committee would agree that sport horse production is the bedrock of agriculture in Ireland. We have a huge opportunity to reposition it as part of the changing face of Irish agriculture. If we put in proper funding and proper incentives for farmers, we can get back to the halcyon days of the Irish draught horse, before the...