Results 1-20 of 34 for at segment:8099449

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (23 Nov 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: I thank the Chairman and members for the opportunity to attend today and present this request for a Supplementary Estimate for 2021. This technical Supplementary Estimate is required to make use of savings on the Department’s Vote to provide for spend over several headings. To allow a technical Supplementary Estimate to take place, a token €1,000 will be added on to my...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (23 Nov 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: I have updated the reference year this time around to try to make it as reflective as possible of current circumstances on family farms and on sheep farms. I picked 2017 because that is the year we had the most sheep in the country. I wanted to maximise the payments to farmers and to ensure the sheep welfare scheme would be the strongest support it could be. The committee will be aware I...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (23 Nov 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: It is a payment for next year. We often receive requests for this to be forward paid. The budget across my Department is significant and we try to manage it as tightly as possible, but as situations can evolve over the course of the year some departments will spend more and others will spend less. Where there is capacity at the end of a year to forward-pay, it makes sense to do so. This...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (23 Nov 2021)

Matt Carthy: On the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, SBCI, scheme, traditionally this has been oversubscribed. In most instances funds are drawn down within days. I learned from Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment officials at a recent meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts that there is undersubscription with regard to some of the loan schemes operated by that Department. Has...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (23 Nov 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: A review of the SBCI is due in the first half of next year. I will be looking at the options and opportunities as part of that review. This scheme has been a positive for the agrifood sector and a welcome enabler of low-cost loans and better competitive options for farmers. It is a scheme I am committed to continuing while also looking at what options would strongly support farm families...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (23 Nov 2021)

Matt Carthy: On TAMS, I am dealing with a number of farmers who are currently in appeals. It is a very strange scheme in the sense that farmers will have outlaid a great deal of money in terms of building sheds or concrete pits and so on. For example, in a situation where a 100% penalty is applied, it would not be possible to return concrete. Some of the cases I am dealing with are in regard to...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (23 Nov 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: Which one is B12? Regarding forestry, this is something in respect of which I have been working with the Minister of State, Senator Hackett. It is something that has been a real priority for the Department. It is a real crisis. This time last year, in particular, we were in a very difficult position. The supply chain was starting to dry up and it was a very difficult situation. We know...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (23 Nov 2021)

Ms Rebecca Chapman: Subhead C11 relates mostly to legal expenses or provision for legal matters that we have not needed to spend this year. We make adequate provision at the start of the year in anticipation of something arising.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (23 Nov 2021)

Matt Carthy: I have two further questions, which I will ask together. They are distinct, but they impact on my constituency in particular. Unfortunately, there has been an avian flu outbreak in my county. It has affected the turkey flock, which could not have happened at a worse time. Does the Minister envisage a compensation scheme or is he confident that there are measures in place to contain the...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (23 Nov 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: Regarding the avian flu, it is a distressing situation for the affected farmers, particularly given the time of year. There is a farm in County Monaghan that has had a case in a commercial flock. Where there is highly pathogenic avian influenza, a compensation package is in place that requires a full cull of the flock concerned. Steps have also been taken to put in place restriction and...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (23 Nov 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: On when the report will be published and come to the Cabinet, it is being prioritised by the Minister of State and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. It will be up to him and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to bring it to the Cabinet, but I expect it will be managed and expedited promptly. I have not seen the report, but I have had numerous engagements with the...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (23 Nov 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: The first question was on farm retirement, which was given consideration as part of the development of the CAP strategic plan to take us up to the end of 2027. It existed before, in the CAP before last, as a targeted measure to try to bring about generational renewal and specifically as a support for young farmers. The assessment was that as expenditure targeted at a support for young...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (23 Nov 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: As the Deputy knows, the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, is leading the forestry element and driving this very strongly. We have established Project Woodland to implement the findings of the Mackinnon report. In that there are three work streams with project teams to drive the implementation of the report. I do not have the up-to-date note on the implementation across each of the...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (23 Nov 2021)

Paul Kehoe: The Minister confirmed to Deputy Carthy that he will give the sector his full support. It is very important because farmers are totally frustrated. Many farmers who were planning on planting forestry have changed their mind because they see what is happening within the Department. They are very frustrated. It is going to take a huge amount of work in the coming months to turn this whole...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (23 Nov 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: I totally agree. I spent four and a half hours last Wednesday with all of the national presidents of the farm organisations and some of their key officers, along with all of the members of my own team. I did a full four and a half hour session on CAP and climate change, dealing with these issues and where we are at the moment. I also made it very clear in terms of how we step forward that,...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (23 Nov 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I thank the Minister and his officials for coming in. The Minister referred to some €7 million for forestry. Last week, at this committee, Teagasc officials gave a fairly sobering assessment that in the first five years after trees are planted, there is damn all in terms of sequestration. We are in bother between now and 2030 because, basically, from 2016, although it is not the...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (23 Nov 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: Yes. It does take time but it then gathers pace as the years go on. That is why, in the climate action plan, we have looked, for example, at the balancing out of the sequestration potential between this decade and the next decade, so credit for plantations that happen this decade can be based on what it will average out at over the 2020s and 2030s. That is important because it further...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (23 Nov 2021)

Ms Rebecca Chapman: Anything that is unspent on the current side at the end of the year is returned to the Exchequer. However, where schemes are EU funded, we have multi-annual commitments. These schemes roll over as multi-annual commitments.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (23 Nov 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I saw in a report by Agriland or another such organisation that Macra na Feirme had indicated a scheme for young farmers had been agreed at EU level. I did not see details of it; I have looked. Is there a scheme coming out that will make it easier for young farmers to gain access to money to buy land or for another purpose? Macra na Feirme wrote something about it.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (23 Nov 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: Does the Deputy mean in terms of solar energy? Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice:Solar and other systems. The Taoiseach was in Ballinasloe looking at a new idea by Easyfix to reduce methane emissions from slurry tanks. Is the Department considering innovative ideas so that if it has money left over, there could be a quick win and quick hit?