Results 261-280 of 3,657 for speaker:Claire Kerrane

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Agriculture Schemes (22 Feb 2024)

Claire Kerrane: 44. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide an update on the delays relating to payments under the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8332/24]

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Agriculture Schemes (22 Feb 2024)

Claire Kerrane: Will he provide an update on the delays relating to ACRES payments, in particular on when the interim payments he announced will be made? These have been welcomed broadly. When will those be paid?

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Agriculture Schemes (22 Feb 2024)

Claire Kerrane: I thank the Minister. That confirmation of payment at the end of the month is very welcome. As I said, we welcomed the interim payments. All the farm organisations welcomed them as well. This is a scheme that we all want to see work. It is, as the Minister described it, the flagship environmental scheme. There was huge demand for the scheme, and it was welcome that all 46,000 applicants...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Agriculture Schemes (22 Feb 2024)

Claire Kerrane: It is important to clarify that the Minister is saying that, aside from the five-year averaging option that just over 5,000 farmers avail of, which is a very small amount, that this is the only option available when they will receive these two payments. The five-year averaging option is the only option for farmers to try to reduce the tax they have to pay this year. If that is the case, the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Agriculture Schemes (22 Feb 2024)

Claire Kerrane: Yes.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Forestry Sector (22 Feb 2024)

Claire Kerrane: 43. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide an update on afforestation levels under the new forestry programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8331/24]

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Forestry Sector (22 Feb 2024)

Claire Kerrane: I ask for an update on afforestation levels under the new forestry programme and for the most up-to-date figures in respect of the number of licences approved so far this year.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Forestry Sector (22 Feb 2024)

Claire Kerrane: The Minister of State will be well aware that there are significant concerns regarding the many limitations of the new forestry programme. I have engaged across the board in relation to forestry and have not met a single farmer, forester, organisation representing those involved in forestry, private forestry company or mill that has any confidence in the forestry programme. They have raised...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Forestry Sector (22 Feb 2024)

Claire Kerrane: I presume that the Minister of State and I are meeting the same groups. She has met SEEFA and I have met that association many times. I am sure she is aware of the concerns raised by many of the farm organisations, particularly the forestry section of the IFA. They are all saying the same thing. The maps speak for themselves in showing the very large swaths of land across the island of...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Land Issues (22 Feb 2024)

Claire Kerrane: 85. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine what recent engagement he has had with regard to the residential zoned land tax and the potential impact of same on land actively being used for agricultural purposes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8156/24]

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (22 Feb 2024)

Claire Kerrane: 95. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the engagement he has had with suckler farmers following announced changes to SCEP; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8154/24]

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Citizenship Ceremonies (22 Feb 2024)

Claire Kerrane: 195. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality how many citizenship ceremonies are planned for 2024; the expected months for citizenship ceremonies in 2024; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8624/24]

Healthcare Provision in Rural Communities: Motion [Private Members] (21 Feb 2024)

Claire Kerrane: There are chronic shortages in general practice right across the State, including in many of our rural communities. They have been worsening in recent years. I see it throughout many towns and villages in Roscommon and Galway. People are unable to see their GP and are waiting for weeks for an appointment to see their GP and more and more GP surgeries are running waiting lists and are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Claire Kerrane: Most of the queries have probably been asked and answered at this stage and if they have, the witnesses could give a bit of information and I can look back. The opening statements provided to us were detailed and really helpful but across all of them it seems as though we are in a space where the actions farmers are taking, sometimes at a cost to themselves, are apparently almost...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Claire Kerrane: Yes, and I will follow up on that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Claire Kerrane: Yes, please.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Claire Kerrane: Is there a timeline for the research that Teagasc has undertaken to be completed, given some of the work that has been done? The witnesses referred to their own work on this. Is there a timeline in that regard or is it just with Teagasc and we must wait and see?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Claire Kerrane: Yes. We cannot wait for that. Coastwatch referred to a good proposal that was raised by, I think, Macra na Feirme, whose representatives were before us last week to discuss these issues. I refer to farmers' ability to assess for themselves water quality and, again, the importance of a case-by-case approach, every farmer being different and all that. The simple field nitrate tests were...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Claire Kerrane: An Taisce also makes the point in its opening statement that we must remember that farmers are not the only ones capable of causing nitrate pollution. This is an argument many people will make in that farmers can take all the actions in the world but it is not just farmers. Would the three groups be able to briefly give their view and opinion on responsibility, that is, where farmers lie as...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Claire Kerrane: For those farmers who are in the derogation, their first priority is to hold that. If the specific measures they are taking are not enough to do what needs to be done, we will get to the point in a couple of years' time, when this is being examined again, that farmers will be told what they did actually did nothing. That needs to be turned around.