Results 1-20 of 119 for peat speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice

Did you mean: pat speaker:405?

Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2024: Second Stage (10 Apr 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ...do. I spoke to a farmer the other day who said he was going to plant a hectare but he was told that he cannot. I asked him why and he said it was because the new EU rules are that there cannot be a depth of peat of more than 30 cm, or it is over. This is where we have to make sure we do things right. If we want to talk about doing things differently for water quality, we should talk...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Antitrust Guidelines for Sustainability Agreements in Agriculture: Discussion (10 Apr 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: On the sustainability side, Ms Jany-Roskova is aware of the nature restoration law, which is thankfully on hold at the moment in Brussels. If a farmer in the west of Ireland was producing beef on a peat-type soil that under the nature restoration law should be rewetted, would that be viewed as not sustainable and would that farmer be at a disadvantage under this?

Nature Restoration Law: Statements (7 Mar 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ...a few hundred acres in the eastern part of the country. I am speaking about small farmers in the west of whom 70% have gone organic. They do not have the quality of land. They have land with peaty soil. Anyone who knows the directive knows it does not affect top-quality mineral soil and good quality land. It affects land with peaty soil. Unfortunately I am old enough to remember...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Reports (20 Feb 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: 456. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to detail, in tabular form, the peer reviewed research reports which prove that native woodlands sequester more carbon on peat soils that conifers, taking account of the full life cycle of the timber used in construction, etc; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7668/24]

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (20 Feb 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: 457. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if peat lands excluded from the afforestation scheme in the new forestry programme can potentially be used for other farming purposes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7669/24]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (24 Jan 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I am asking this specific question. You have to look at all soils in the country. You have to look at peat soils, mineral soils and boggy soils. What is the definition of a healthy peat soil?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (24 Jan 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I know that. That is one headache for us, but I am talking about mountains and lowland peat soils. Regardless of the peat soil, the directive is a carte blanche over all soils in the line of getting all of them healthy by 2050. Would the witnesses agree with that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (24 Jan 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ...referred because you did not go in at favourable status. That is the way it works at the moment for anybody who has followed the habitats directive. What is favourable status in the context of a peat soil someone is farming?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (24 Jan 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: On a peat soil, for anyone who knows anything about it, the habitats directive had a 30-year span to try to get at that. In a lot of cases, it was not fit to do it in the context of annex 1. It obviously takes an awful lot of work and the only way there were able to try was by rewetting. Has a lidar system already been done on the soils of Ireland? I understood the Department was doing...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (24 Jan 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ...are totally different at the moment. They are compiling that at present. Let us take Listowel, County Kerry, because I know it fairly well. There are cows out in fields that were originally peat bog. How do you get those to favourable status?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (24 Jan 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: In all fairness, it is not possible to meet the criteria for bog or peat land with fields that have shores in place every 7 yards, which the EU paid the farmers to do, and drains around the edges. It will not be possible to meet the peatland criteria for such land as it originally was 50 or 60 years ago.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (24 Jan 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ...I lived in the Golden Vale, there would be no worries because of the soil type found there. It is different, though, if you live in Donegal, the west or the midlands and come from an area that has peaty soil. The same EU, as I said, gave grants for people to drain land. There is not a hope in God of achieving the required status. First, if land has been shored and drained, there will...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (24 Jan 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: .... I would have no fear of ordinary soil. Yes, I would be watching the Ps and Ks. That land would be fairly okay but I would be frightened of the Listowels and the Offalys of this world where the peaty soil is. That is where my big concern would be. Unless there are cushions put in there for Ireland, we are going to sell our farmers down the Swanee in those areas. Mr. Ryan referred to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Threat of Bark Beetles to Plantations: Discussion (17 Jan 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ...forestry industry is dead at the moment. I think 45 ha of this 1 acre dream world they were on about is all that is being done. We understood that we could plant if there was less than 35 ml of peat in the 1 ha, but now we cannot. It is in the doldrums. The big worry I would have is that we will not have a nursery left in Ireland to be quite frank about it. I would like the witnesses'...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (7 Dec 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: 289. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to detail the specific section of the specific policy document that specified a maximum peat depth of 50 cm applied to the afforestation scheme in the last forestry programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54368/23]

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (14 Nov 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ...and the Marine given that at a recent forest service training day in Killaloe, County Clare, the forest service representative stated that the new protocol or procedure for assessing and measuring peat-oregano mineral soil was trialled on 25 sites across Ireland prior to it being implemented as department policy and procedure, if he will detail, in tabular form, the counties in which the...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (14 Nov 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ...organise for the industry to visit the 25 sites, or a portion of same, trialled by the forest service of his Department in the assessment of the new protocol-procedure for assessing and measuring peat-oregano mineral soil for training purposes, as the full results of the 25 sites are known to his Department and will make very good productive training and verification; and if he will make a...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (14 Nov 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ...and the Marine if, following the issuance of an afforestation technical approval for afforestation and a corresponding financial approval, and subsequent to ground cultivation taking place on a peat-oregano mineral soil site, that species selection needs to change from one forest type to another due to peat-oregano mineral soil depth, if this is a material change to an afforestation...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (14 Nov 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ...Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to confirm as per a recent forest service training event in Killaloe, County Clare, on the new forestry programme, a department official stated that if peat depth is greater than 30 cm after cultivation is completed on a site that has received a valid technical and financial approval, that foresters should convert to another forest type such as...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Concerns for Sourcing Winter Animal Feed in Shannon Callows Area: Discussion (8 Nov 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ...be fighting to keep your land. Those are the facts and there is no point in waffling. If the nature restoration law that is being voted on goes through in Europe, and all our MEPs are backing it, peaty-type soil, which is in the witnesses' area, will be in trouble. There is no point in saying anything different. Second, how many Ministers have there been down through the years? I...