Results 61-80 of 121 for peat speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice

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Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horticultural Peat Supply and Willow Scheme: Bord na Móna (23 Mar 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: What does Mr. Breen see filling the vacuum for the other 85%? I am going by the figures he has mentioned. I am talking about what happens when someone is not dealing with somebody. Peat is different. For example, smaller peat producers have different markets. Does it look like it will be imported? If you have someone else buying something from you, you will not head down the road and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horticultural Peat Supply and Willow Scheme: Bord na Móna (23 Mar 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Does Bord na Móna have enough peat in store for briquettes up to 2024, which is the date mentioned by Mr. Breen? What is the total peat Bord na Móna has around the country, bad, good or indifferent, in cubes or in tonnage?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horticultural Peat Supply and Willow Scheme: Bord na Móna (23 Mar 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I believe I know where Deputy Carthy is coming from. I know the piles around Castlepollard. A problem arose last year for private individuals who had piles of peat that was to be hauled away on the moving-floor trailer to the place of processing. The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, in its great judgment, decided to start following people around roads. It does not do what it is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Carbon Sequestration and Storage in Agriculture: Discussion (17 Nov 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I am trying to establish this for the benefit of farmers from Donegal to Kerry. I am talking about reclaimed land. There is either lough or peat; there is white marl or peat. If it is 170 kg per ha around the country in general under nitrates, I think Mr. Callanan is saying those farms will not be restricted from carrying a stocking rate the same as any other, with regard to these 80,000...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Carbon Sequestration and Storage in Agriculture: Discussion (17 Nov 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Dr. Lanigan referred to peat soils earlier. I worked on the raised bog, raised bog habitat and so forth. Every area is different. Dr. Lanigan said Teagasc is doing 30 areas in the country. With the best will in the world, I know Teagasc cannot be everywhere to even trace where active raised bog habitat is in some bogs and even in the blanket bogs - and the witness is correct in saying...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Carbon Sequestration and Storage in Agriculture: Discussion (17 Nov 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: We call it marly or lochy type of land. There is a very small volume of matter - it is not peat - and the ground under it does not allow water down, to put it very simply. The witnesses have no research yet on that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticultural Industry: Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (21 Sep 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ...with responsibility for climate and they were the most arrogant person ever to come before a committee. They basically said straight out that part of the solution is going to be importing peat. Anyone with any environmental brain in their head will know bringing peat 200 km to a boat, 3,000 km on the boat and then having 200 lorry loads of it going up and down the country is complete...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticultural Industry: Discussion (20 Jul 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I thank the witnesses for coming in. I will get straight to the point. The working group that was supposed to come back in May has now met. Has that group found a solution for the people milling peat on sites over 30 ha? I spoke to all parties earlier and I outlined the issue of the habitats directive that Michael D. Higgins signed in, whereby people have to have appropriate assessments,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticultural Industry: Discussion (20 Jul 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ...here today that I do not buy into this idea. In Germany, 3,000 ha, including land on which there is housing, can be blown out for lignite up until 2039 or 2040. Other EU countries are sending peat and peat briquettes here. We seem to be the gatekeepers of Europe, if not the world, in the context of this type of legislation. How are they able to work around it while we are not? How are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticultural Industry: Discussion (20 Jul 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Can I be honest with Mr. Nugent? I am not into milling peat but I know bogs better than anyone because I was reared in the middle of one. If any person with 80, 100 or 200 acres goes through the screening-out, EIA and appropriate assessment processes that apply to works over the 30 ha threshold, the council will be afraid to give him or her planning permission. That is the reality. Our...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticultural Industry: Discussion (20 Jul 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ...on whether a bog is restorable or not, regardless of whether it is designated. A lot of those bogs are degraded, and they will never be restorable. We were better off getting a bit of milled peat off them and making sure that we saved the jobs in those areas and introducing whatever legislation was required to make sure of that rather than seeing boats coming in to ports in this country...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticultural Industry: Discussion (20 Jul 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ...interested in closing things in this country than in keeping workers producing stuff. I do not accept that Germany and other countries can be working away and that the Department has not looked at peat coming here in terms of the environmental footprint and regulations in the same EU that they all love? We are looking at the boats coming in when we have the product here. If you tried to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticultural Industry: Discussion (20 Jul 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ...been sensible to outline the situation so that we would have Europe's backing? We should also find out how Germany is able to do it, and how other countries in Europe are able to produce as much peat as they want, yet here in Ireland production is being shut down. In all of those countries, they are well over the 50 ha limit.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticultural Industry: Discussion (20 Jul 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I asked a question. When we look at Germany and other countries that are able to send peat here, the working group has stated that dual consent does not apply to them. Is that correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Jul 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ...will not happen. It is my experience that when one Minister is talking in the Dáil, another Minister is sitting behind. We need honesty from politicians about where this is going for the whole peat sector. In the witnesses' opinion, was a solution agreed? They can do all the reports they want and have all the meetings, working groups and BS, to be quite frank about it, but if...

Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (16 Jun 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ...the ESB will not guarantee the power supply. There is something illogical about what we are doing in this country when we talk about a just transition. Workers in the midlands are not allowed to mill peat, but we can bring it into the docks on a boat. Peat briquettes are also coming in from Germany, Estonia, Latvia and other countries, while Bord na Móna must get out of producing...

Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Second Stage (Resumed) (6 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ..., Estonia and elsewhere than it is to tell Bord na Móna's workers in Offaly to keep making briquettes until 2030. They are 15% moisture and meet all the various criteria. The Government is happier to bring milled peat into Ireland in order to keep the mushroom industry going than it is for us to mill our own peat. We seem to be happier to bring in biomass from Brazil - I would like...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Climate Action Plan and its Implications for the Agriculture Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (4 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ...Talt and it had to go through the imperative reasons of overriding public interest, IROPI, process with 9,000 people being two years on a boil-water notice. It objects to forestry, objects to the peat harvesting, objects to turf cutting but the witnesses would not give an answer to Deputy Carthy earlier on whether they would rather see the mushroom industry collapse or keep getting the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Climate Action Plan and its Implications for the Agriculture Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (4 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Will the witnesses answer the question Deputy Carthy asked earlier? We are now bringing in peat for the mushroom industry from another country. We are bringing in peat briquettes. Do they agree with that or do they believe the mushroom industry should be wiped out? Which is it? One cannot have both sides of this.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Proposed Amendments to the Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions: Discussion (14 Apr 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ...is entirely up to that minister. After 25 years of CAP, why are we now going down a road whereby some farmers in this country are being differentiated based on whether they have mineral soils or peat soils? Can the officials answer that? On top of that, in the document, it states that where a farmer would not be able to clean drains or carry out works, this sort of backdoor job would...