Results 481-500 of 7,651 for speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The same as every other year when we saw the dashboard.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: What does Mr. Delany think will be planted this year? From 2020 to the end of last year, the Department has not achieved one year’s worth of the targets. That is a damning statement for any Department. One year is 8,000 ha and it has not achieved that from 2020 to 2024. I accept that may be for different reasons, for example, new legislation was brought in and so on. However, down...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I know that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: What does the Department expect?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Would Mr. Gleeson be worried at the moment? This committee has dealt with the issue and we have watched it every year. It is past April and we have gone into May. There is probably another month of planting as people will not be planting in June, July or August. Is Mr Gleeson worried that only 392 ha are coming in at the moment? Is he worried we would not increase on last year?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: You might, but these are the figures.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I will tell Mr. Gleeson why the Department is not getting enough applicants in. From 2018, 2019 or 2020, farmers were waiting and waiting and they went into GLAS and other schemes because they could see money coming and did not have to wait for the postman to come with something. I understand that some of that was due to challenges and so on. Mr. Gleeson spoke about a review. I did a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: No, 60%-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: There was another question.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I have a couple more questions. The witness kept saying "the Minister" and "the Minister" but every Department tells the Minister what A, B and C is. It is not a Minister who goes into the Department and states we are going to do 8,000 ha next year. It is the information the officials put together and they advise. Is that not right?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: All right. There is one thing in your forestry policy guides that probably never came up to the witnesses previously. We are seeing more and more of it, even on plantations, that is, ESB wires. Why is there not a policy set? Would it be fair to say that after 30 years, a spruce tree will grow to 75 ft, probably some of them are around that, or maybe 80 ft? Why is there not a 30 m setback...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Hedgerows are sitting on the land.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The same as trees.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Does the witness understand what I am saying?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I will give Mr. Gleeson a few facts from a Teagasc document if he likes. According to our inventory up to now, peat was emitting 7.3 million tonnes. Teagasc has now done the research. It is getting it peer reviewed and it is down to 3.3 million tonnes or 3.4 million tonnes. That is a fair bit of a reduction. On top of that, we have not studied what grass, hedgerows and all the different...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Regardless of voltage, I would never be on about voltage because if the two wires that are going along on a low-volt line are knocked, it takes out the whole thing. Would the Chair agree?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I recall a TD who is now Minister asking me how we could get more trees planted. Some people call a ditch a drain but we call it up the way claí. Years ago, people planted trees down along in a line. They were lovely. In the eighties, a lot of them were got rid of. We all know that but there are still a lot of hedgerows. In my head, an acre is 1,000 trees. Why is there not a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I do not think you can get it under the native tree scheme. That is the problem. I am on about one tree. You cannot go taking up fields. There is a ditch and you could sow a side of it or along the ditch. It was done years ago. Does the Chair agree? It would not affect the farming. It was ticking the box the Department required. It was bringing more native trees in. It did a lot....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Will the Department look at it?

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse Racing Industry (8 May 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: 411. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he was aware of recent price increases in horse passport registration fees by Horse Sport Ireland; if he has any role in setting prices for foal passports; if he can reverse the decision of the HSI; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20664/24]