Results 1,081-1,100 of 6,944 for speaker:Michael McNamara

Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Report Stage (26 Apr 2023)

Michael McNamara: The Minister used the word "historic" quite a lot. This is historic only to the extent that never has so much been offered but so little delivered by way of concrete powers to a regulator. Where does the regulator have the power to ascertain the impact of feed lots? How will it do that unless there is a possibility to give it that power? The Minister does not have to do so, of course. It...

Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Report Stage (26 Apr 2023)

Michael McNamara: I move amendment No. 3: In page 8, between lines 20 and 21, to insert the following: “ “meat processing plant” means any plant or premises where there the business of slaughtering livestock, of manufacturing or preparing meats or meat food products from livestock for sale or shipment in commerce is carried out;”.

Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Report Stage (26 Apr 2023)

Michael McNamara: That is the legislative process.

Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Report Stage (26 Apr 2023)

Michael McNamara: To suggest that the powers that are proposed to be given to the Minister and his successors to make regulations requiring transparency in the food chain is already covered in this Bill is patently incorrect. Where does the Minister or the regulator have the power to require beef processors to provide data on the amount of feedlot cattle that are being killed? That has an important impact on...

Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Report Stage (26 Apr 2023)

Michael McNamara: In seeking to introduce transparency, the Minister has avoided the elephant in the room, which is the relationship between processors and retailers and the role-----

Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Report Stage (26 Apr 2023)

Michael McNamara: I did not agree to these amendments being grouped. In fairness, they are slightly disparate amendments that deserve an adequate discussion.

Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Report Stage (26 Apr 2023)

Michael McNamara: I urge the Minister to accept these amendments, not because he has to implement regulations I have set out here, but because he could introduce regulations if he thought they were necessary or, more importantly,-----

Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Report Stage (26 Apr 2023)

Michael McNamara: -----if the regulator he is establishing thought they were necessary. The Minister is proposing to give a regulator-----

Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Report Stage (26 Apr 2023)

Michael McNamara: -----a job he or she and his or her office will be unable to do, which is to introduce transparency in the food chain, especially when it comes to the murky world of meat processors in Ireland.

Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Report Stage (26 Apr 2023)

Michael McNamara: I move amendment No. 2: In page 8, between lines 20 and 21, to insert the following: “ “livestock producer” means any person engaged in the business of selling livestock to a meat processing plant for slaughter (including the sale of livestock from a meat processor to another meat processor);”. I thank the Ceann Comhairle and the Government Chief Whip for...

Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Report Stage (26 Apr 2023)

Michael McNamara: Amendment No. 2 provides what I suggest is a fairly non-contentious definition of a livestock producer, which is "any person engaged in the business of selling livestock to a meat processing plant for slaughter (including the sale of livestock from a meat processor to another meat processor)". Amendment No. 3 defines a meat processing plant. Again, I suggest this is relatively...

Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Report Stage (26 Apr 2023)

Michael McNamara: The use of feedlots is just one of the avenues open to processors to keep down prices. This amendment does not require anybody to do anything but it facilitates the Minister or his successors to introduce legislation requiring very extensive reporting by meat processors on the "type of purchase, including grades, and age, the quantity of cattle purchased on a live weight basis, the quantity...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (25 Apr 2023)

Michael McNamara: The programme for Government pledges to introduce a new food authority that will ensure "fairness, equity, and transparency in the food chain”. The legislation to do that is coming before the House tomorrow on Report Stage. Twenty-five amendments have been put forward in good faith, the majority by the Opposition but a significant minority by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (25 Apr 2023)

Michael McNamara: I thank the Taoiseach.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (25 Apr 2023)

Michael McNamara: I thank the Minister of State.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Turf Cutting (25 Apr 2023)

Michael McNamara: 312. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if there is any legal proscription on cutting turf by persons with turbary rights for one's own use in the Tullaher Lough and Bog (SAC); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19023/23]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (25 Apr 2023)

Michael McNamara: 534. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 158 of 25 January 2023, the reason for the delay in issuing Covid-19 recognition payments; when he expects outstanding payments to be made to front-line workers in private nursing homes, hospices and agency healthcare assistants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19071/23]

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (20 Apr 2023)

Michael McNamara: I previously raised the plight of farmers who farm in designated areas and whose farming practices are, therefore, restricted. Previously, they were compensated for that through the BurrenLife scheme in the case of the Burren and the hen harrier project in the Slieve Aughty Mountains. That has been abolished. They were told to go through the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES....

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (20 Apr 2023)

Michael McNamara: I was not invited to that meeting.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (20 Apr 2023)

Michael McNamara: When will it go beyond consideration?