Results 781-800 of 1,036,735 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Tom Kitt OR speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice OR speaker:Jack Chambers OR speaker:Jennifer Whitmore)

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I am just looking at the witnesses' graphs. What does the second one mean?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: On dredging, when grass and drains are blocked up and are blocking water and they are cleaned out, the water gets discoloured and dirty. Once they clean out, however, it is perfectly clear water. Are the witnesses saying that cleaning drains is a bad thing?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: When it is being taken up.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Generally, when a small drain is being cleaned, you bring a bale of straw to put in to make sure that everything is soaked and it purifies in a way that will not damage the waters downstream. Would that be fair to say?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I have another question relating to something the witnesses would have been involved in. At present, we are hearing about Ireland needing to meet targets such as planting another 500,000 ha of trees. That is written in every document I read. It will cause chaos on our water quality if it is the case that forestry is the third biggest contributor to nitrates. It is one thing pushing...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: To be honest about it, though, and not being smart, there will be a drain or a river near any bit of forest planted.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I come from a farming background. No matter where you go now in Ireland, there is nowhere that planting trees will not result in run-off down to some drain or river. When people planted forestry one time, they did the mounding and there was a system where it took out all the material. It is delusional to think we are going to sow 500,000 ha of trees and still get better water quality. In...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: What length is a stretch?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The water framework directive was mentioned. In Europe, we are on the higher scale for having good quality water compared with some countries. Is this correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The EPA has been a while on the go looking up water. A directive is a directive, but you can dream a dream and then you can have realism. Will we ever get to 100%? Being realistic, will this ever happen, be it in Ireland or in any other country in Europe? Have we brought in a directive that, to be honest, if 2027 is basically the date that people are on about for Europe, I am not saying...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Has the threshold not risen?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The threshold has never risen.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Fair enough. I thank the witnesses.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (10 Jul 2024)

Jack Chambers: Good evening. I thank the committee for giving me the opportunity to attend this evening to discuss the summer economic statement which sets out the fiscal parameters-----

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (10 Jul 2024)

Jack Chambers: There are copies available, I believe.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (10 Jul 2024)

Jack Chambers: Is the Chair happy for me to continue?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (10 Jul 2024)

Jack Chambers: First, I will briefly outline the economic and fiscal context for the budget. Over recent years, the economic backdrop has been defined by a series of successive external shocks. These shocks saw global supply chains upended, inflation surge to multi-decade highs and monetary policy rapidly tighten. One of the most important lessons we have learned from the past few years is that the world...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (10 Jul 2024)

Jack Chambers: In the projections as part of budget 2025, we set out the medium term. First, the fiscal framework and the general government surplus, which will be set out from there. That is as it occurs every year.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (10 Jul 2024)

Jack Chambers: They will be set out in the-----

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (10 Jul 2024)

Jack Chambers: We set out the projections in the stability programme update in April on the surpluses beyond 2025. That is public information. We will set out further forecasts and projections as part of budget 2025. The most recent set of projections for the general Government balance, GGB, extend to 2027 and the intention is to publish projections out to 2030 in the budget this year.