Results 61-80 of 5,219 for speaker:Martin Heydon

Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (19 Nov 2025)

Martin Heydon: That is a different thing for now.

Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (19 Nov 2025)

Martin Heydon: I am making the point that what I need for next year, I have set aside for next year. I hope not to be in the position where I need that next year. For this year, I am fixing that. I am here tonight looking for €53 million extra to clear the commitments we have.

Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (19 Nov 2025)

Martin Heydon: I accept that but that is on current compensation rates.

Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (19 Nov 2025)

Martin Heydon: They will be paid this year. That is why we are here going through this process. I am in the Seanad tomorrow and in the Dáil next week. If everybody approves, we will get that Supplementary Estimate into the account.

Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (19 Nov 2025)

Martin Heydon: There is more money, not less, in the sheep welfare scheme as a total overall figure. When I negotiated my first budget in recent months, I was not negotiating it on a per head basis. I was negotiating a global figure for livestock to be able to support those sectors. In the budget negotiations last year, for 2025, there was an estimate taken of how many people would apply for the scheme....

Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (19 Nov 2025)

Martin Heydon: As part of last year's announcement after the budget, there was per head figure put on it. I would not have done that. That was an estimate based on how many people would have applied.

Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (19 Nov 2025)

Martin Heydon: No.

Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (19 Nov 2025)

Martin Heydon: It is.

Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (19 Nov 2025)

Martin Heydon: It was always the case-----

Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (19 Nov 2025)

Martin Heydon: It was always the case that that was a total amount. That total amount paid out will be based on how many people apply.

Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (19 Nov 2025)

Martin Heydon: What people could not allow for was how I designed the scheme, opened it up earlier, made it more user friendly and made it more attractive to farmers to apply for. While I have key priorities around trying to address the bovine TB issue, supporting our ACRES farmers and our tillage sector, I managed, for budget 2026, to continue to have €131.8 million for livestock as a global...

Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (19 Nov 2025)

Martin Heydon: I take the Deputy's point of view on board. Terms and conditions in these schemes are very clear that the payment rate is dependent on how many people apply. I had decisions to make. I could have made opposite decisions and paid this out to fewer farmers. I could have made the commitment of €13 a ewe but included ranking, which would have ruled some people out. To me, that felt...

Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (19 Nov 2025)

Martin Heydon: The reason for the timeline around the opening of that scheme was so that we could meet our commitment to pay every farmer this year. We have had 1,200 applications. We are still processing them. We anticipate expenditure in this scheme will be around the figure in the Estimate. My commitment is to pay those farmers in this calendar year. If we were to open that up now, it would go into...

Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (19 Nov 2025)

Martin Heydon: In last year's budget. There is no provision in next year's budget because this is the end of it.

Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (19 Nov 2025)

Martin Heydon: No. That is not how it works. The Department had no way of knowing this time last year how many people would qualify. What happened in the earlier part of the year was the scheme was opened up for people who felt they qualified to express an interest to give us a ballpark figure. That €5 million was an indicative figure. We did not know if it would need more or less. It was a...

Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (19 Nov 2025)

Martin Heydon: No, because that would go into next year. There is no budget provision for that next year. I made a commitment that I would address that issue once and for all this year. I opened it up to those applicants. We have them and that issue will be put to bed this year. Those farmers will be paid in December.

Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (19 Nov 2025)

Martin Heydon: The disease is acting differently. We are farming differently too, which we have to be honest about, particularly when it comes to our dairy herds. That is a contributory factor. On the additional funding for the new approach to bovine TB, in the context of the five-pillar plan with 30 different actions in it, part of the money I need involves a 30% increase in investment in the area of...

Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (19 Nov 2025)

Martin Heydon: We have 30 different subheads, and we move money around and try to do that. In the context of the three flock owners who have been impacted in Carlow, Meath and Monaghan, we have a structure in place whereby they can negotiate a compensation package based on set criteria. I would hope to be in a position to be able to pay them this year out of that budget. Should we continue to have...

Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (19 Nov 2025)

Martin Heydon: There is a 30% increase in resources, so that is an investment into staffing in that area. Some of it will be outsourced. Some of that detail still has to be worked through with regard to how we approach that. We have had tenders previously that farm relief services have been involved with it. We have 18 deer management units rolling out around the country. It is a broad spectrum...

Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (19 Nov 2025)

Martin Heydon: I thank Deputy Crowe for his points. I could fill my days having meetings with people on additional things that could be put in TAMS, such is its popularity and the desire to get extra measures in there. We have 400 items covered in TAMS as it is. It is a hugely popular scheme.