Results 161-180 of 8,268 for speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Challenges Facing the Tillage Industry: Discussion (1 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I thank the witnesses for coming in. My first question is for Teagasc. Mr. Spink mentioned new markets. What is the value of the market last year, this year and the year before that? How much value, in additional millions of euro, has Teagasc created for tillage farmers through distilleries and so on through higher prices?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Challenges Facing the Tillage Industry: Discussion (1 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: What is the point in the usual palaver of talking about markets? It is pounds, shillings and pence that farmers need in their pockets, not talk about new markets that is not delivering. Where are the markets if Teagasc has said it has done the work on them and got them?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Challenges Facing the Tillage Industry: Discussion (1 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Does Mr. Spink realise that at the moment-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Challenges Facing the Tillage Industry: Discussion (1 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: -----the dairymen are not coming in knocking on the door? The beef man is not coming in because, thankfully, the price is good. Farmers are busy and they only look for a fair price when they are in trouble. Let no one cod themselves about the fact that the tillage sector is in trouble at the moment. We are going to lose tillage farmers. I have questions for the Department. Under the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Challenges Facing the Tillage Industry: Discussion (1 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I draw Ms Byrne's attention to the clock.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Challenges Facing the Tillage Industry: Discussion (1 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Yes, I know that. Ms Byrne talks about opportunities for farmers. Unless I heard it wrong, we are losing a farmer every week out of tillage. Is that correct? That is not an opportunity, it is a loss. I say that just so Ms Byrne understands it. I understand that grain must come in because we do not have enough in this country. At the moment, she is talking about increasing tillage at...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Challenges Facing the Tillage Industry: Discussion (1 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Could someone answer the Bord Bia one on genetically modified products?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Challenges Facing the Tillage Industry: Discussion (1 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I have just one question. It is probably not the Department’s area but Europe’s. How in God’s name can someone know in a third country whether somebody spread X, Y and Z on the grain when it is landing in on a boat here three or four months later?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Challenges Facing the Tillage Industry: Discussion (1 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: There are many things people are not supposed to do in some of those countries, no more than with tagging cattle, traceability and all of that. Sure, it is loolah what goes on in some of those countries, but Europe is closing its eyes to it. Yes, they will sign up to an agreement. I think what the Mercosur agreement said is that the only way a country can be thrown out of it is if it gets...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Challenges Facing the Tillage Industry: Discussion (1 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Let no one say it is any different in any other thing they are growing.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Nitrates Derogation: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (24 Sep 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: For Dr. Ó hUallacháin, the cleanest river in Ireland is the Islands River. About ten diggers cleaned it 12 to 14 years ago. It is one of the best rivers in Ireland. To anyone who talks rubbish about cleaning rivers and says that things will not come back, I say that rivers were cleaned for years and all the different things came back. This myth has to be got rid of. If you do...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Nitrates Derogation: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (24 Sep 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: What does that mean?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Nitrates Derogation: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (24 Sep 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Will it help us? If an ordinary farmer has 100 cows and RENURE is coming in, how will it help?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Nitrates Derogation: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (24 Sep 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Would it have to be animal manure?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Nitrates Derogation: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (24 Sep 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Right.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Nitrates Derogation: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (24 Sep 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Who keeps track of the overall thing?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Nitrates Derogation: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (24 Sep 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Could I ask one question?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Nitrates Derogation: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (24 Sep 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Every river recovers. That is what I am saying. I saw it happen with the Islands River. Anyone can look it up under the EPA and what it is. One question I have----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Nitrates Derogation: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (24 Sep 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: It is about exported slurry.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Impact of Trade Deals on Agriculture: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (24 Sep 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I wish Ms McPhillips the best of luck in her new role. She has a tough job ahead, with all of the different things, but she is well-seasoned, in that she knows the job inside out, so the best of luck. On Mercosur, I want to say I am opposed to it, unlike Senator Daly, for this simple reason. If we look at the backstops that have been put into it, the so-called cushions, the first thing is...