Results 9,481-9,500 of 18,593 for speaker:Michael Creed

Other Questions: Agriculture Schemes (4 May 2017)

Michael Creed: I have an open mind on it, but the Deputy is proposing a coupled payment.

Other Questions: Agriculture Schemes (4 May 2017)

Michael Creed: The history of coupled payments is that they incentivise more production. However, more production will drive down the value.

Other Questions: Agriculture Schemes (4 May 2017)

Michael Creed: In two successive rounds of CAP reform we have moved away from coupled payments to decoupled payments and provided payments to things such as improving the genetic merit of the herd. Payments for further environmental measures such as GLAS, AEOS, ANC, knowledge transfer to improve farmers' knowledge on-----

Other Questions: Agriculture Schemes (4 May 2017)

Michael Creed: I appreciate support for this. However, by and large people who might know better than both of us would not support a coupled payment that would incentivise numbers rather than incentivise quality. I am serious about this. If the Deputy is proposing this in a rational economic way, he has to face up to the fact that there is no headroom in the rural development programme and the only way...

Other Questions: Pesticide Use (4 May 2017)

Michael Creed: A delegated Act has been recently adopted by the EU Commission which proposes 14 changes pertaining to the basic payment and greening schemes. This Act is currently with the European Parliament for review. This legislative process was commenced to try to reduce the complexity of regulations for farmers and to make schemes less bureaucratic and more streamlined to administer. As part of...

Other Questions: Pesticide Use (4 May 2017)

Michael Creed: We are trying to avoid having different rules apply to the same crop. The Deputy should bear this in mind given what he said about sustainability. We are a net importer of protein crops and beans are one of the areas in which we can cultivate a protein crop as an import substitute. Bear in mind that we import very substantial amounts because we are a net importer, particularly for the...

Other Questions: Live Exports (4 May 2017)

Michael Creed: My information is that the new check on the residency requirement was implemented by the Department on the AIM system from 23 January and switched off on 27 January for a number of reasons, including the fact that some parties claimed they had insufficient notice and that some technical issues came to light. The issues were rectified and, following the issue of new trader notices, the check...

Other Questions: Live Exports (4 May 2017)

Michael Creed: The restrictions on animal movement and the length of time spent on their last holding are demanded by retailers. A review has been carried out recently by Bord Bia of the eligibility criteria for quality assurance payments and this should make it administratively easier for farmers but a lot of quality assurance payments are driven by retail and consumer demands over food safety. I do...

Other Questions: Live Exports (4 May 2017)

Michael Creed: This is an issue between the producer and the processor and is not an issue in which the Department is directly involved but I am aware that it is an issue in which farm organisations have been involved and that it has been the subject of negotiations between processors and Bord Bia, which facilitates the QPS scheme. I take note of what the Deputy says, however, and I will bear it in mind.

Other Questions: Agriculture Schemes (4 May 2017)

Michael Creed: Ireland has supported the greater market orientation of the CAP over recent reforms, including by the decoupling of payments from production, because farmers' freedom to respond to the demands of the market is vital for the long-term development of the sector, as set out in Food Wise 2025. This approach to the reform of the CAP was recognised as being the most suitable approach to...

Other Questions: Environmental Policy (4 May 2017)

Michael Creed: The Deputy is something of an urban cowboy these days.

Other Questions: Environmental Policy (4 May 2017)

Michael Creed: I have said in my response that in the context of compiling Food Wise 2025 that we appointed consultants in the area of environmental analysis. Our objective is sustainable intensification and to increase our output because we have a natural advantage. The Deputy stumbled when he said that beef with a far higher carbon footprint would displace us on the UK market shelf.

Other Questions: Environmental Policy (4 May 2017)

Michael Creed: If there is a market demand that our farmers can meet, but in so meeting can do so in the most carbon efficient way, it is defensible, in the context of meeting the challenge to meet a growing global population, to do it in the most carbon efficient way.

Other Questions: Environmental Policy (4 May 2017)

Michael Creed: It could be argued theoretically that if we want the lowest carbon footprint that we should have no bovines at all. That is pie in the sky. We could have carbon efficient dairy and carbon efficient beef.

Other Questions: Environmental Policy (4 May 2017)

Michael Creed: Of course we are, because our ambition is to displace beef production with a far higher carbon footprint, because that is what the consumer is increasingly looking for.

Other Questions: Live Exports (4 May 2017)

Michael Creed: I am sure the Ceann Comhairle will indulge me-----

Other Questions: Live Exports (4 May 2017)

Michael Creed: -----if I acknowledge the outgoing president and the president-elect of Macra na Feirme, Mr. James Healy, who is a Cork man and happens to be a consituent of mine. I would like to wish him well during his presidency. It is a requirement under EU law that cattle exported from Ireland within the EU (including to Northern Ireland) must complete a residency period on a holding prior to...

Other Questions: Environmental Policy (4 May 2017)

Michael Creed: If I use the term as frequently as the Deputy attributes it to me, and I do not doubt that - I have no doubt his researchers do great work, and kildarestreet.com is such a reputable source of information - I would say to the farming industry outside to take a bow, because it very seldom gets the credit for the work that it puts in and its commitment to reaching the new standards and measures...

Other Questions: Environmental Policy (4 May 2017)

Michael Creed: That is not true. We have few natural resources and one of the great natural resources we have is grass. A grass-based production system is the most carbon-efficient way to produce dairy or beef. If one looks at those two sectors in particular, we are the most carbon-efficient producer of dairy on the planet. New Zealand and Ireland are the most carbon-efficient. In the European Union,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: GLAS Payments (4 May 2017)

Michael Creed: This year is the first full run of GLAS payments and there are problems which were not foreseeable in respect of the complexity and challenges posed to the IT system. It is not a question of resources from either an IT or staffing perspective, it is simply the volume and complexity of applications and having to walk through each application individually across parcels of land and up to 30...