Results 781-800 of 23,915 for speaker:Charlie McConalogue

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (9 Sep 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: Earlier this year a decision was made to issue interim payments to ACRES participants who had not received their 2023 advance payment. I announced that this payment would amount to €4,000 for ACRES General Participants and €5,000 for ACRES Cooperative Participants, and that it would be offset against the final ACRES payment for 2023. Accordingly, my Department wrote to all...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (9 Sep 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: A full review of the processing of the Basic Income Support for Sustainability Scheme (BISS), ECO Scheme and Organic Scheme payments, is being carried out with regard to the above named persons 2023 scheme applications. Work has already commenced on this and staff of my Department will contact the applicant to advise them of the outcome of this review in due course. Once the review is...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Diseases (9 Sep 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is a challenging disease to control and eradicate. I am committed to making real progress in controlling TB as I am aware of the financial and emotional trauma associated with a TB breakdown for farmers. The table below details the number of herds experiencing a new restriction, due to bovine TB, since 1st January each year, by county for the years 2014 to 2023 and...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Diseases (9 Sep 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: When cattle are slaughtered as reactors under the TB eradication programme, it is because they have tested positive for infection with TB. It is not routine to culture all TB reactors. Visual inspection of reactor carcases at post-mortem finds that, on average, in the years from 2014 to 2023 a range of 28-39% of such reactors had visible lesions of tuberculosis, meaning the infection has...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Diseases (9 Sep 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: Bovine tuberculosis (TB), caused by infection with Mycobacterium bovis, is a persistent problem in cattle herds in Ireland. The epidemiology of TB is complex and challenging. There are three main sources of infection for cattle - the purchase of infected cattle, the presence of residual (undetected) infection within cattle herds and from wildlife (badgers predominately). The relative...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Diseases (9 Sep 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: TB vaccines are currently being used as part of the wildlife programme of the bovine TB programme. My Department has carried out scientific research on the effectiveness of badger vaccination in a number of locations across Ireland over the years, in collaboration with researchers from University College Dublin. A field trial in County Kilkenny using the BCG vaccine and a blind placebo...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Industry (9 Sep 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: The Farmers' Charter of Rights has a key role to play in the determining of key targets and timelines in respect of applications, payment, inspections and appeals under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). In July, my Department reached agreement with representatives of the main farming organisations on a new Farmers' Charter of Rights. This Charter represents a full update of all targets...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Supports (9 Sep 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: The following tables represent the total number of ACRES Tranche 1 and Tranche 2 applications that were approved, withdrawn and that are now currently active per county as of 3rd September 2024. Tranche 1 County Approved applications Withdrawn applications Active applications Carlow 489 19 470 Cavan 1713 68 1645 Clare 3017 83 2934 Cork 3755 136 ...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (9 Sep 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: Advance payments in respect of participation in the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) in 2023 commenced in December 2023. By the end of February 2024, 19,719 farmers had been paid a total payment value of €88.4m. However, when it became apparent that additional time would be required to pay the remaining participants, I arranged for nationally funded interim payments to be...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (9 Sep 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: The following table represents the number of 2023 scorecard reports and the number of commonage reports issued to ACRES participants as of 05thSeptember 2024. *Number of Scorecard Reports issued 24,373 *Number of Commonage Reports issued 6,266*These figures are not mutually exclusive and some participants will be included in both categories. I can confirm that all 2023 ACRES...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (9 Sep 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: Advance payments in respect of participation in the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) in 2023 commenced in December 2023. By the end of February 2024, 19,719 farmers had been paid a total payment value of €88.4m. However, when it became apparent that additional time would be required to pay the remaining participants, I arranged for nationally funded interim payments to be...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Industry (9 Sep 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: As Minister I have worked and continue to work hard to deliver funding for the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors and to support the income of our farming and fishing families. The funding I have negotiated over the last four budgets is supporting farmer incomes while also supporting the sector’s environmental ambition and on-farm sustainability. This funding also provides key...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (9 Sep 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: I have long supported the cohort of farmers known as the forgotten farmers and have committed to supporting them. At my behest, my Department has developed a preliminary outline of a proposal to provide support to the forgotten farmer group. Work continues on addressing a number of issues, such as the funding required, consistency with public expenditure and state aid considerations before...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Industry (9 Sep 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: The Good Agricultural Practice for the Protection of Waters (GAP) Regulations (SI No.113 of 2022, as amended) set out maximum limits for the application of chemical Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorus (P) to land under various scenarios. Based on the limited information outlined, it is not possible for my Department to confirm the amount of fertiliser that can be applied in this specific case....

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (9 Sep 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: Up to the week ending 30th August, 2024, my Department has approved 363 afforestation licences, representing 3,104 hectares. In addition, 278 approvals have issued under the Native Tree Area Scheme, representing 304 hectares. Recent weeks have seen an upward trend in afforestation licence approvals, with 70 licences for 560 hectares issuing in August, the highest output since late 2022. As...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (9 Sep 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1301 and 1302 together. Ireland’s Forest Strategy (2023 – 2030) has an overriding objective to urgently expand the national forest estate on both public and private land in a manner that will deliver lasting benefits for climate change, biodiversity, water quality, wood production, economic development and quality of life. Following an extensive...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Industry (9 Sep 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: Comprehensive data on dairy cow and other livestock numbers is available from the CSO through the following links and associated datasets, for June and December each year: June: www.cso.ie/en/statistics/agriculture/cropsandlivestockjunefi nalresults/ December: www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-lsd/livestocksurv eydecember2023/ There is no target figure for the national dairy herd....

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (9 Sep 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: The family farm is at the heart of agriculture in Ireland, and I am a strong supporter of assisting the next generation to take over the farm when the time is right to do so. It is essential for the ongoing development of agriculture that there are young and enthusiastic people coming through. Supporting young farmers and new entrants is critical to ensure a bright future for the agri-food...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fodder Crisis (9 Sep 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: I am very aware of the challenges that weather conditions have placed on farmers this year. It was on this basis that I reconvened the National Fodder and Food Security Committee (NFFSC). The meeting of the NFFSC on 8th July heard from Teagasc specialists that grass growth has been below normal which is resulting in fodder stocks being behind target on some farms. In response these findings,...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Welfare (23 Jul 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: I acknowledge your request for information on how a person could go about setting up a meeting with a relevant official from my Department regarding concerns relating to animal-bird welfare. I would be grateful if the Deputy could provide my office with more information pertaining to this request, so that my Department can establish if this individual’s concerns are within the remit of...