Results 10,001-10,020 of 18,593 for speaker:Michael Creed

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Beef Imports (23 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: Using the latest data available from the European Commission, Brazil exported a total of 421,530 tonnes of beef into the EU during the 2014 to 2016 period. Broken down by year, imports of beef from Brazil were 144,259 tonnes in 2014, 136,705 tonnes in 2015 and 140,566 tonnes in 2016. During this same period of 2014 to 2016, the EU as a whole consumed a total...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Beef Imports (23 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: The annual volume of beef imported into Ireland from Brazil is relatively modest. In 2014, 116 tonnes, valued at €578,000, was imported into Ireland. In 2015 these import volumes fell to 70 tonnes, at a value of €377,000. A more substantial reduction in 2016 has brought this figure down to 22 tonnes, or €98,000 in value terms. This...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: TAMS Eligibility (23 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: The new Tillage Scheme is targeted at farmers who have tillage as their main enterprise in order to ensure the best allocation of resources. The investments available under the remaining TAMS II suite of measures cater for those farmers who do not meet the 15 hectare eligibility criteria but have other enterprises (e.g. dairy, beef, sheep enterprises) on their farms as well as tillage.

Seanad: Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (22 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: I thank Senator David Norris for his amendment and Senators Gerald Nash, Kevin Humphreys and Pádraig Mac Lochlainn for their contributions. Senator David Norris has proposed an amendment which seeks to remove section 10(1)(a) from the Bill. It would have the effect of removing the principle of access for sea fishing boats owned and operated in Northern Ireland to fish in our zero to...

Seanad: Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (22 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: -----as a self-described Southern Unionist, particularly considering that the authorities in Northern Ireland are continuing to allow reciprocal access for our boats.

Seanad: Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (22 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: No. This is the point the Senator misses: under the voisinagearrangements, our boats can fish in Northern Ireland fishing waters on the exact same terms as Northern Irish boats. Until the Supreme Court ruling of 27 October, Northern Irish boats were entitled to fish in our fishing waters on the exact same terms.

Seanad: Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (22 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: I will come to that matter.

Seanad: Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (22 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: Let us remember that the Supreme Court upheld the High Court's finding that the voisinagearrangements were not invalid but that, as they stood, they lacked sufficient legal legislative provision.

Seanad: Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (22 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: It never stated anything about the provisions being unconstitutional. It stated the arrangements which had been in place up to 27 October which were effectively a gentleman's agreement were not a sufficient legal framework, not that they were unconstitutional. I will come to a specific quotation from the judgment which might, if the Senator's mind is open to alternative facts-----

Seanad: Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (22 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: -----convince him of the Supreme Court's view.

Seanad: Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (22 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: The Bill seeks to address what the Supreme Court identified as being required - giving the arrangements a legal footing and cementing our ongoing relationship with Northern Ireland. For that reason, I cannot support the Senator's amendment. In the Supreme Court judgment Mr. Justice O'Donnell called the cross-Border approach to fisheries "an important area of co-operation between the two...

Seanad: Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (22 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: I will deal with all of the points raised. An important point is that at the heart of this legislation is reciprocity. It is about mutual co-operation. When Senator David Norris said he saluted the people who had taken the Supreme Court case, against whom I bear no ill will, he said that because they were from Waterford, Limerick, Donegal and Wexford, it covered all of the island....

Seanad: Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (22 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: It is a 32 county island. This is saying there is enough that divides us. We can have areas of co-operation, which has continued since the 1960s. That is what the court stated. It stated it was good. It stated it was an appropriate area in which to have co-operation, as envisaged under the Good Friday Agreement. Taking Senator Norris's Southern Unionist partitionist approach is baffling...

Seanad: Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (22 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: No, but I make the point that the ownership model that may have been prevalent in the 1960s when this was envisaged has moved on very significantly. In the context of the European Union, for example, there is free movement of goods and services. Bear in mind, whether we like it or not, that there is an EU dimension to all of this. Our nearest neighbour is about to leave the European Union...

Seanad: Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (22 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: Some 40% of the Irish fishing fleet's fishing endeavour comes from UK territorial waters. I am not talking about the zero to six nautical mile zone. I am talking about-----

Seanad: Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (22 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: -----UK territorial waters. It makes up 40%. Among the most valuable of those species, pelagic fish, it is significantly more than 40%. With prawns, it is much higher than the average-----

Seanad: Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (22 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: Why would it be prudent today, as we seek to negotiate the best possible outcome for the Irish fishing industry in the context of Brexit, effectively to give two fingers to our neighbours in Northern Ireland and say they are not coming into our nought to six nautical mile zone, though we can still go North and would like to hold on to what we catch in their UK waters? It just-----

Seanad: Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (22 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: In realpolitik, it is an illogical position to adopt. For many good reasons, primarily because this operated successfully for nearly 50 years, because it is the right thing to do for our neighbours in Northern Ireland, because it is not partitionist and is all-island, because it was envisaged in the Good Friday Agreement and because it would be strategically and politically wise in the...

Seanad: Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (22 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: If the Senator might yield-----

Seanad: Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (22 Mar 2017)

Michael Creed: The point I was making was that when we joined the European Union, our industry was a fraction of the industry we have now.That was in the 1960s. The point is irrelevant because the Common Fisheries Policy only came into existence several years after we initially joined the European Union.