Results 161-180 of 4,109 for speaker:Martin Heydon

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: I am happy to keep going and finish the meeting.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: I am happy to answer them. They are really detailed but it is very important. On the Senator's first point regarding water quality, I do not for a minute want it to sound like we are putting the blame on other people. Farmers have a role to play in terms of water quality. The point we are making is farmers are making great strides in that area and we need others to make the investment...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: I thank the Deputy very much and wish him well in his term. It is great to have him on the committee. To say it clearly yet again, the CAP has served us very well. I think it is understandable for eastern European countries to want to have a focus on defence. The Deputy spoke about rearming as a very negative thing. There is a war-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: I can understand why people who have Vladimir Putin as their neighbour would be concerned about their safety. These are fellow European countries, so I understand their concern. I-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: No, there is not. I do not accept the Deputy's underlying premise. He threw in a comment around GAEC 2 there as well. I am just making the point that European - and I will answer the specific point made by the Deputy - food security is not about every individual country producing all the food themselves. That is not food security. We are the second-most food secure nation in the world....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: Regarding the point about contingency measures and the work we are doing in this regard, I am not giving up. There is an element of throwing in the towel in some of what the Deputy is saying.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: I take great heart when I look at a country like Poland, which is on the flank of Russia and facing such major problems. That country's minister for agriculture is, like us, strongly advocating for the need for a fully-funded CAP with the old structure. I am not, therefore, giving up on that and I am continuing to fight very hard. I work with-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: I am sorry, but I will not be able to come back. I was supposed to have been here until 6 p.m. I do not mind finishing, but I cannot come back I am afraid. I should have been gone 15 minutes ago.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: Let us just not miss the vote.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: Yes, I will provide a written response to that question. It is probably the best approach because we are out of time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: I will ensure the Deputy gets detailed responses.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: The AGRIFISH Council meets once a month. It is probably the most intense Council meeting along with ECOFIN. There are few Irish Ministers who have to go out there every month. I do not miss an opportunity to engage and get to know the officials. There are people in the cabinet of Commissioner Hansen and others who I knew previously in different roles. You build those relationships and...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: International Protection (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: My Department launched a new €1.3bn Forestry Programme in 2023 with an annual budget that can facilitate the planting of up to 8,000ha of new forests annually. The Afforestation Scheme, within the new Forestry Programme, offers landowners a choice of 12 Forest Types, covering a broad range of planting options. These include, for example, Native Woodland, Continuous Cover Forestry and...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Departmental Expenditure (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: The Burren Scheme, funded by my Department under the Rural Development Programme 2014-2022, with additional support from the National Parks and Wildlife Service, was an agri-environmental results-based scheme devised to improve the condition of the natural and cultural heritage of the Burren. Farmers received payments to undertake actions focussed on habitat management for biodiversity, as...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Departmental Expenditure (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: The Biodiversity Regeneration In a Dairying Environment (BRIDE) Project, funded by my Department under the Rural Development Programme 2014-2022, implemented a results-based approach on intensive farms in the River Bride valley of north County Cork aimed at conserving, enhancing and restoring habitats. Working in collaboration with farmers, the project identified priority actions to improve...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Departmental Expenditure (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: The objective of the Beef Welfare Scheme 2024 is to further increase the economic efficiency of and enhance animal health and husbandry on suckler farms. Payments in the amount of €19.98 million issued to some 23,132 Beef Welfare Scheme 2024 participants eligible for payment in early December 2024. Those not eligible for payment included participants who had not submitted a BISS...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Departmental Expenditure (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: The Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) aims to provide support to beef farmers to improve the environmental sustainability of the national beef herd. The programme aims to build on the gains delivered in recent years through the Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP) and the Beef Environmental Efficiency Programme (BEEP) by improving the genetic merit of the Irish suckler herd. ...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Departmental Expenditure (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: My Department provides significant support to the beef sector under the EU co-funded Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) which is complemented by the exchequer-funded 2025 Beef Welfare Scheme (BWS). In April, I announced that 2025 BWS will open for applications in early August. This new support scheme has a budget of €28m and will focus on practical measures to enhance...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Departmental Expenditure (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: The Areas of Natural Constraints scheme provides payments to people farming land in designated areas that face significant hardships from factors such as remoteness, difficult topography, climatic problems, and poor soil conditions. Support is provided based on the following categories of land: Category 1 land: The system of farming prevalent in Category 1 is characterised by extensive...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Departmental Expenditure (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: The Tillage Incentive Scheme (TIS) was an emergency support Measure introduced following the war in the Ukraine. The aim of the scheme was to incentivise farmers to increase the eligible tillage crop area in order to assist in reducing the dependency on imported feed material. In 2024, a maintenance payment was available to those, who having converted area to tillage in 2023, and were...