Results 801-820 of 1,130,540 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Róisín Shortall OR speaker:Kieran O'Donnell OR speaker:Frank Feighan OR speaker:Aodhán Ó Ríordáin OR speaker:Colm Burke OR speaker:Darragh O'Brien OR speaker:Michael Collins OR speaker:Thomas Gould OR speaker:Paschal Donohoe OR speaker:Seán Crowe OR speaker:Damien English OR speaker:Neale Richmond OR speaker:Bernard Durkan OR speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice OR speaker:Denis Naughten OR speaker:Chris Andrews OR speaker:Micheál Martin OR speaker:Neasa Hourigan OR speaker:James Lawless OR speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh OR speaker:Pádraig O'Sullivan OR speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh07 OR speaker:Joe McHugh OR speaker:Ossian Smyth OR speaker:Michael Creed OR speaker:Matt Carthy OR speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh19 OR speaker:Patrick O'Donovan OR speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett OR speaker:Michael Ring OR speaker:Ruairi Ó Murchú)

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Issues Impacting the Fisheries Sector and Aquaculture: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Ring: I welcome the officials from the Department. I will start at the back before moving forward. What supports has the Department given the shellfish market over the past year? It is being put through the mill, particularly with Brexit. How much of the adjustment fund was drawn down by Ireland and how much was sent back? That money was sent to Ireland to try to support fishers. Why have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Issues Impacting the Fisheries Sector and Aquaculture: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Ring: Most people in the shellfish market had to export through England into Europe, but Brexit has created a problem, given the barriers. What supports have been provided to help the market? The industry is in great difficulty.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Issues Impacting the Fisheries Sector and Aquaculture: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Ring: I do not wish to be disrespectful, as Ms McSherry is answering the questions she is asked, but why has there been such resistance within the Department to hook-and-line fishers in recent years? Why will it not give a bit more quota to small fishers, particularly on the west coast, who are depending on it for their livelihoods? Ms McSherry and I know it is a difficult life and anything those...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Issues Impacting the Fisheries Sector and Aquaculture: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Ring: That is fair enough. Ms McSherry is not the Minister, to be fair, and I cannot say any more about that. Nevertheless, she might get the Department to consider other species that fishers could fish but are not allowed to. These people have gone through a very difficult time over recent years. This keeps a lot of jobs and people working and a lot of money in the economy, especially in rural...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Issues Impacting the Fisheries Sector and Aquaculture: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Ring: My final question relates to the industry itself. I have noticed over the years that there are a lot of fishing organisations. Have they come together and are they singing from the same hymn sheet, or is there still the same level of competition between their representatives? The Minister will go to the EU between now and Christmas to negotiate again, and we all want to be on the same hymn...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Issues Impacting the Fisheries Sector and Aquaculture: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: Brexit has severely impacted the Irish fishing industry, affecting catching, processing and exporting. The loss of quota led to a decommissioning scheme resulting in the loss of 40 boats from the commercial sector. This has significantly harmed fish producer organisations in west Cork, especially the Irish South and West Fish Producer Organisation, ISWFPO, which saw its membership drop from...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Issues Impacting the Fisheries Sector and Aquaculture: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Issues Impacting the Fisheries Sector and Aquaculture: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: The EU production and marketing funding has not increased in more than ten years despite rising costs. This makes the work of our fish producer organisations unsustainable. When will the Minister and the Department increase funding to account for the increased cost of living and doing business?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Issues Impacting the Fisheries Sector and Aquaculture: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: I appreciate that. Do the Minister and the Department recommend that fishermen and women on Irish-registered boats be made eligible for a seafarers' income tax allowance similar to that available to merchant seamen and members of the Irish Naval Service? This differing treatment seems discriminatory. Is that the case?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Issues Impacting the Fisheries Sector and Aquaculture: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: Does Ms McSherry have any idea, or can the Minister or the Department confirm, whether such a recommendation was made in advance of budget 2025?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Issues Impacting the Fisheries Sector and Aquaculture: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: I am going back to the first question I asked at the beginning. I thank Ms McSherry for answering the questions to the best of her ability. What can fishermen do to turn around the negative feeling that is out there? I know Ms McSherry will say she cannot answer that question but it was the last question asked in Bantry the other day. There is a negative vibe in the world of politics...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Issues Impacting the Fisheries Sector and Aquaculture: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: I will make a final point which does not require an answer. From talking to inshore fishermen and to people in the pelagic sector, I know that they want to fish their way out of these problems. They do not want compensation. They just want to fish but they are not allowed in our water.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: National Dialogue on Women in Agriculture: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I am sorry about earlier on. There were votes and a Bill on agricultural appeals under way. I apologise that not all of us could be here when the witnesses were talking. I have known Dr. Farrell for a long time. She is a good Mountbellew woman. She has spent a lifetime trying to bring forward ideas for rural Ireland, for sustainability and to keep rural communities alive. A long time...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: National Dialogue on Women in Agriculture: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: On the likes of agricultural science courses, I presume the colleges are analysing the number of students who are doing these courses as against the numbers ten or 15 years ago. Has there been an uptick in the number of women in agricultural science?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: National Dialogue on Women in Agriculture: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I would be the first to say, as I have many a time, that in light of the age profile of farmers, we badly need a retirement scheme to encourage people to move the land on to the next generation. I will mention one thing. The witnesses probably have this in their analysis. For males and females, lifestyle now has changed compared with years ago. In some cases farmers will say they have got...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: National Dialogue on Women in Agriculture: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I was at a social farming event this morning down near Elfin. It is great to see that how that has worked with the small bit of funding that it gets. The thing for farmers at the moment is that they might not see a person from one end of the week to the other especially if they are living on their own and we need to try to sort that out. I have been talking to MEPs, etc. and I know that...