Results 61-80 of 3,570 for speaker:Martin Heydon

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tillage Sector (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: I will go down to visit the flour mill and Deputy Byrne can get me a couple of boxes of Wexford wine while we are there.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tillage Sector (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: At the Mallow festival, I was presented with Wexford wine and it was very impressive. I am delighted to see that market go from strength to strength. The programme for Government includes support for the development of knock-on industries from the tillage sector. That value-added factor is important, in addition to the basic fundamental of the sector that Deputy Aird articulated so...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tillage Sector (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: I could not agree more. I have said previously in the House that I see agriculture as a gearbox within which all the different enterprises, including tillage, dairy, beef, sheep and pigs, are interlinked and interdependent. Should one sector of that gearbox stop working, it impacts on everything else. Tillage is a key component of that. The sector has been through a tough time. To be a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Agriculture Schemes (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: When I came into this role ten weeks ago, I looked at the situation with ACRES. It is unacceptable that 2,800 of the farmers who signed up to a contract back in 2023 have still not had their applications processed and that there are problems with the system. In 2024, there were 14,500 farmers who had not had their advance payments issued. That was unacceptable. I worked with the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Animal Diseases (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: I thank Deputy Moynihan for raising this really important issue. Our livestock sector faces ever-increasing animal health threats. Diseases such as bluetongue threaten our cattle and sheep. I take the threat of bluetongue virus, BTV, very seriously. My Department carries out post-entry sampling of all ruminant animals and camelids from mainland Europe for BTV regardless of the bluetongue...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Animal Diseases (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: We have enhanced biosecurity measures at our ports for vehicles coming in. Ireland is currently BTV free. An outbreak of BTV in Ireland would have a significant impact on animal welfare, the Irish livestock sector and trade. It is important to state that Bluetongue does not impact human health or food safety. However, the bluetongue virus serotype 3, BTV-3, has spread widely across...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Animal Diseases (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: On the last point, as I outlined, there is no vaccine for BTV-12 but there is one for BTV-3 and that remains under consideration. On the Deputy's main point, the answer is that we are doing everything we can to try to keep this out. Obviously, we are not importing risk animals from risk areas. There is a risk, at the height of the season in high summer, of midges travelling over themselves...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Environmental Schemes (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: I cannot do this in a minute. I will start by taking grave exception to the phrase Deputy Conway-Walsh. She stated that what is proposed will "severely disadvantage" farmers in Mayo or anywhere else in the context of GAEC 2. That is not the case. Day-to-day farming and agricultural activity will continue. On the basic point made by Deputy Connolly, and following on from Deputy Kenny's...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Environmental Schemes (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: I was not suggesting that.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Environmental Schemes (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: No wonder farmers are concerned. Deputy Conway-Walsh can only raise those concerns and I can only answer back on numerous occasions in this House, in the media and , at farming organisations' public and private meetings to reassure farmers that this is not a designation. When words like "designation" are used and references to planning are used, as was used earlier, that sets farmers' fear...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Agriculture Supports (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: I thank Deputies Moynihan and Cleere for raising very valid points. To respond to Deputy Moynihan first, I am looking at every engagement farmers have whether on the farm when someone like the AI man, the milk collection, the vet or the farm adviser visits or on the knowledge transfer walks. The Deputy talked about farm walks. Knowledge transfer groups are a great way of addressing farmer...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Agriculture Industry (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: I thank Deputy Connolly for raising this important point. European Innovation Partnership projects, EIPs, are locally led innovative projects developed by operational groups acting collaboratively towards a common goal. They are a fantastic vehicle and one I used in my previous role as Minister of State. We use such projects across a range of areas within the Department of agriculture....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Agriculture Industry (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: The Deputy will understand that I am a step removed from the evaluation process and, as such, the straight answer to the Deputy's question is that I do not know. The group will know because, if it was involved in phase 2, it would have had to make a submission. I am happy to talk to the Deputy about that but, for very good reasons, I am a step removed from the evaluation process. It is...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Agriculture Industry (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: Absolutely. The programme for Government highlights the importance of the wool sector and how we want to help develop further opportunities for wool and examine the possibility of a scouring plant. We do not have one in Ireland and that is an impediment to further development. I remember a time when the shearing of sheep and the collection of wool was a really valuable part of a sheep...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Agriculture Industry (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: The call was launched on 5 November 2024 and 27 applicants were selected to submit a more detailed project proposal as part of the competition with this phase closing on 24 February. These have been submitted and will be evaluated in the month of April.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Environmental Schemes (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: I am delighted to again have the opportunity to speak on GAEC 2, which was raised in the House earlier. As a reminder, GAEC 2 is a baseline requirement under the CAP regulations for the protection of carbon-rich soils. It is legally required to be put in place for 2025 as part of the conditionality requirements for the basic income support for sustainability, BISS, payment scheme. The...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Agriculture Industry (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: I thank the Deputy again for raising this. There are two points at the heart of his question. One is the importance of our tillage sector, on which I absolutely concur with him. There is a reason my Department has had a number of interventions to support the tillage sector, which has come through a couple of really difficult years, from straw incorporation and protein aid to the tillage...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Agriculture Supports (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: I thank the Deputy for raising this question on such an important issue. Farm safety, health and well-being is a priority for this Government. There is a specific focus in the programme for Government on farmer mental health and well-being, recognising the unique challenges faced by the sector. I secured dedicated funding of €2.5 million in budget 2025 to build on previous...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Agriculture Supports (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: The Deputy is dead right. The work is isolated in nature. I know that from my time farming at home. The days were long. If I was in the tractor on my own all day doing a job or out tending to fencing or to livestock, I could have too much time with my own thoughts, I used to find. It does not happen in politics much; we tend to be much busier and kept well distracted. I am being...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Agriculture Supports (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: Exactly. There are a lot of pressures in farming from price to weather to rushing around and all those different elements. The pandemic really brought home the fact that the lockdown took away the key social engagements that farmers had that they really depended upon such as the trip to the mart, maybe the trip to mass or religious service at the weekend, a trip to a pub or a trip to a...