Results 14,521-14,540 of 28,255 for speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Vote 30 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (23 Sep 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The Minister mentioned aquaculture licence approval in Galway Bay. I asked a written parliamentary question, which I thought was reasonable, and got a very vague answer.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Vote 30 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (23 Sep 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I asked about the timeframe in which we can expect a decision on the application by Bord Iascaigh Mhara in Galway Bay. I am not asking the Minister to pre-empt a decision; I am just asking what the timeframe is.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Vote 30 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (23 Sep 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Will we have a decision this side of Christmas?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Vote 30 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (23 Sep 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: There are three levels of payment on DAS at the moment: less severely handicapped or less favoured areas, more severely handicapped or severely disadvantaged areas, and mountain areas. When one looks at the productivity of the land in the three areas, there is not much difference between good land and less favoured areas, and the difference between that and the more disadvantaged band is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Vote 30 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (23 Sep 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: That creates a very interesting precedent. Some islands are very fertile and some are not so fertile. Some of those in the lake near me are well farmed, while some are in the sea. The Minister has just taken them as a group, viewing them as disadvantaged, with feed, etc., having to be brought in by barges or by boat. I welcome this, but the reality is that in many cases the mountain...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Vote 30 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (23 Sep 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: More farmers, fishermen and forestry workers?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Vote 30 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (23 Sep 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I did not say that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Vote 30 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (23 Sep 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Next year?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Vote 30 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (23 Sep 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I refer to the whole ball of wax in regard to direct payments - the single payment, area of natural constraint, ANC, and everything else. If we look at all of the grants, there was a 10% drop between 2011 and 2013 and last year there was a drop of €1.769 billion. The total will be down again this year and next. Part of the reason for this is that the single payment has decreased...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Vote 30 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (23 Sep 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I have a technical question. Last week I asked a question about the increase in employment in the area of agriculture, fishing and forestry, but I received a reply giving me a figure for the increase in employment in the agri-industry, food and fisheries. The area of agriculture, fishing and forestry is a separate CSO heading, but the reply included the figure for the agri-industry. ...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Vote 30 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (23 Sep 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I wish to clarify the point I was making. We are on one landmass but we have two different standards. There are farmers who own land on both sides of the Border and who move the cattle over and back. Given all of that, the nature of animal health and welfare and that diseases can travel easily on land, it seems to me a totally unsatisfactory situation if any part of the island, under...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Vote 30 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (23 Sep 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I do not think that is the concern that has been voiced. I have no doubt that if established dairy farmers grow their businesses and do not have to borrow inordinate amounts of money, they will be able to take the vicissitudes and volatility that are inevitably involved in any world trade commodity. The big worry people have, as we should know from what has happened in recent years, is that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Vote 30 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (23 Sep 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I thank the Minister for the outline. I am not saying this as a personal criticism of him as the same thing was happening when we were in government. However, when all of this talk about output targets came in, I remember being very critical of it at the time because I always believed that the output targets would be just another layer of bureaucracy, another box-ticking exercise we would...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Vote 30 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (23 Sep 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: No; it would be useful if the Minister made the statement. We can be well gone in two hours, given the lateness of the hour and the fact that there is much happening this week.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Vote 30 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (23 Sep 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: No problem.

Other Questions: Commonage Framework Plans (23 Sep 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Must one have some stock?

Other Questions: Commonage Framework Plans (23 Sep 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The point at issue is that some farmers farm the lowland but not the commonage. The Minister states that now those farmers must put sheep on the commonage.

Other Questions: Commonage Framework Plans (23 Sep 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: If they do, can the Minister imagine trying to find ten ewes on 200 acres or 500 acres? In reality, that is what he is imposing on farmers. I will show him the figures in the folders to prove it.

Other Questions: Commonage Framework Plans (23 Sep 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: No.

Other Questions: Commonage Framework Plans (23 Sep 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: One of the big questions for anyone familiar with commonage farming and hills would be what the "something extra" referred to by the Minister involves. What is the nature of the "something extra" that the 50% will have to agree to? As I understand it, the Department has said that farmers can join individually as long as there is a common plan for the commonage part of the farm. Is the...