Results 9,461-9,480 of 23,950 for speaker:Charlie McConalogue

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry (1 Dec 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: I established a Seafood Sector Task Force in March 2021 to examine the impacts on our fishing sector and coastal communities of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement and to make recommendations to me on initiatives that could be taken to provide supports for development and restructuring so as to ensure a profitable and sustainable fishing fleet and to identify opportunities for jobs and...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry (1 Dec 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: The security of supply of fish products to the retail sector is a commercial matter between fishing vessel owners, fishers' cooperatives and other first point of sale entities and their respective retail sector customers.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Common Agricultural Policy (1 Dec 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: Membership of the Bord Bia Sustainable Beef Quality Assurance Scheme is an eligibility condition of the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme and the Dairy Beef Calf Welfare Scheme as part of Ireland's draft CAP strategic plan.  The full details of the draft CAP strategic plan are available on the Department's website.  The Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme is an environmental...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Common Agricultural Policy (1 Dec 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) has overall responsibility for the implementation of the NEC Directive, which covers ammonia. The NEC Directive is focused on overall emissions levels at a national level, it does not cater for farm level emissions, similar to our climate targets. The issue of whether a farmer is in receipt of CAP payments is not...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Common Agricultural Policy (1 Dec 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: The rules governing undue payments, penalties and interest under Pillar 1 schemes are set down in a combination of EU Regulations and Statutory Instrument.  The details are given in Terms and Conditions of the Basic Payment Scheme. The 2021 Terms and Conditions state "Where farmers do not meet scheme rules, their payments can be reduced, and penalties applied. Where the...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (1 Dec 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: Currently persons are required to hold the minimum of a Level 6 award in agriculture, horticulture, forestry or equine in order to meet Young Trained Farmer (YTF) educational requirements. The approved qualifications are listed in Revenue Schedule 2B SCDA 1999. In addition to these qualifications, Teagasc may certify other qualifications as corresponding to a Schedule 2B qualification. When...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Industry (1 Dec 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: The quantity of seed potato certified by my Department’s inspectors since 2016 to 2020 is listed in Table 1 below.  The quantity of seed potato imported from Scotland for the same period is listed in Table 2.  Figures relating to 2021 are not currently available. Table 1 Year Certified Seed Potato (tonnes) 2016 3,308 ...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Industry (1 Dec 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: As the Deputy may be aware the average area of seed potatoes certified in Ireland for the years 2016 - 2020 was 231 hectares, ranging from 203 hectares in 2019 to 253 in 2016. The area for certification in 2021 increased to 299 hectares giving a 29% increase over the mean of the previous five years. The Department has sufficient staff resources assigned to the inspection and...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Common Agricultural Policy (1 Dec 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: The amount of Pillar I funding paid to Young Farmers in respect of financial years 2016 to 2021 is as follows: Annual Account Period (Financial Year) Total 2016 Annual Account 16.10.15 – 15.10.16 €18,390,272 2017 Annual Account 16.10.16 – 15.10.17 €19,468,019 ...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (1 Dec 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: Convergence is a feature of the current CAP and the new CAP proposals intend to continue with this policy. Ireland has supported this element of these proposals. Convergence aims to redistribute and flatten the value of CAP payment entitlements across Ireland and all Member States. Under the current CAP, some €93million was redistributed from farmers with payment entitlements...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (1 Dec 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: A financial support package of €4.25 million has been secured to offset the additional cost on farmers in the move to mandatory electronic identification of cattle from January 2022 onwards.  The intention is that the scheme will operate over three years (2022 to 2024 inclusive) with the first payments scheduled to take place in quarter four in 2022, expected to be in...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (1 Dec 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: The new CAP places a particular focus on promoting the participation of women in the socio-economic development of rural areas, with special attention to farming. Member States are required to strengthen their capacity in gender mainstreaming and in the collection of sex disaggregated data. The SWOT and Needs Analyses exercises prepared as part of the development of Ireland’s new CAP...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (1 Dec 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: I propose to take Questions Nos. 229 and 230 together. To date 26thNovember, the Department has issued 2,552 tree felling licences for an area of 26,500ha and a volume of 7.612 million cubic metres.  This compares very favourably to the same week ending in 2020, when my Department had issued 1,529 tree felling licences for 16,161ha and 4.424 million cubic metres. In other words,...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (1 Dec 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: The Pest Free Area (PFA) of South West of Scotland is the only zone from which coniferous roundwood with bark is imported into Ireland. This is because UK Forest Commission have surveyed and continue to survey and found it to be free from Protected Zone (PZ) bark beetles. This roundwood must be accompanied by a Phytosanitary Certificate from the UK authorities with a declaration of pests...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Reviews (1 Dec 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: The review of the Environmental Impact Assessment (Agriculture) Regulations will be carried out by the Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine. The review will be a comprehensive evaluation of the Regulations and the timescale involved has not yet been determined.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (1 Dec 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: Both I and Minister of State Pippa Hackett, who has overall responsibility for the sector, take the forestry licensing issue extremely seriously and it is a top priority in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Significant time and resources continue to be devoted to dealing with the backlog and this is beginning to have the desired...

Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund Regulations 2021: Motion (30 Nov 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: I thank the Deputies for the wide-ranging contributions. To summarise, in order to allow my Department to provide the monies allocated in budget 2022, it is necessary to comply with the technical requirement under section 12(13) of the Horse and Greyhound Racing Act 2001 to increase the cumulative limit to €1.54 billion to accommodate the extra €88 million we are allocating...

Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund Regulations 2021: Motion (30 Nov 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: I move: That Dáil Éireann approves the following Regulations in draft: Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund Regulations 2021, copies of which were laid in draft form before Dáil Éireann on the 20th October, 2021. An important pillar of Government policy is to ensure that the horse and greyhound racing industries achieve their maximum potential and in doing so contribute...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (30 Nov 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: Significant tree planting measures are proposed within Ireland’s draft CAP Strategic Plan. The proposed Agri-Environment Climate Measure contains options for planting trees in rows, groups or parkland, including the option of planting a tree belt for ammonia recapture adjacent to a farmyard, or planting trees on a riparian buffer adjacent to a watercourse as appropriate. Over...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (30 Nov 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: Afforestation rates have seen a decline in recent years and there are many reasons for fall-off in interest in planting, including negative perceptions of forestry, competition for land and regulatory difficulties. It will be the challenge of the next Forestry Programme to incentivise and promote forestry. As set out in the Programme for Government, this Government is committed to a new...