Martin Heydon

Trade is two-way. In response to the Deputy's original question, I said clearly that we are in a space where we need to have absolute confidence that any food that comes into the EU meets our standards. Our sanitary and phytosanitary, SPS, food safety standards are non-negotiable. They are the standards to which we expect our farmers to produce food in the EU and we do not accept secondary standar…

It is about balance but we benefit largely from it because we export 90% of the food and drink we produce. We absolutely need it to be a level playing field. We need to make sure those standards are there, that there is confidence in our products, whether the food is produced in Europe or comes in. We will reiterate those points, but the checks and balances are there. This is non-negotiable for th…

I cannot be any clearer than I have been. At every AGRIFISH Council meeting, I have raised Mercosur and our concerns about it. I am not the lead Minister with responsibility for that; it is the responsibility of the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, who has that key consideration. I take my role at the Cabinet table seriously. I use my role as a representative and custodian of our farmers an…

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Unfortunately, there have been four outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in turkey flocks since early November, one each in counties Carlow, Meath, Monaghan and, most recently, Laois. I express my sympathy to the flock owners concerned. I acknowledge the worry this situation is causing to all those in the poultry industry in Ireland. These outb…

To reiterate, the Animal Health and Welfare Act provides that compensation to owners of animals may be payable if a cull of those animals is directed. It is specific. It has clear criteria, and rightly so. If a flock owner or farmer is being asked to remove their entire herd or flock for broader national reasons in the best interests of stopping the spread of disease, that is the most important th…

I thank the Deputy for his remarks. Ultimately, it is an important step in a process. The process now is with the technical committee that meets on 9 December. It was always our intention and ambition in all of our negotiations to get the best possible proposal agreed by the Commission and then put that on the agenda for the 27 member states and that technical committee to hopefully vote on. We st…

I thank the Deputy for raising the important matter of the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, which is the flagship environmental scheme provided under the 2023-27 CAP strategic plan, with €1.5 billion in Exchequer and EU funding allocated over the course of the scheme. There are currently just under 53,700 participants in ACRES. ACRES payments issue on a scheme year basis, with 2023 b…

I completely agree that it is important to get this right. When I got this job on 23 January, there were 14,500 farmers who had signed up in good faith but had not been paid. The problem was on my Department's side through systems failures that had happened. We worked really hard and put extra staff on it. I visited the team in Wexford. We looked at the systems and tried to change them around. The…

I thank Deputy O'Shea and colleagues across the House for their support as we worked through the challenges on ACRES. I am committed to having permanent fixes in place so that we can get back to talking about the good things that ACRES is delivering for our environment. More than 54,000 farmers are delivering more than 9,000 km of watercourse protection through buffer strips on areas adjacent to r…

I propose to take questions Nos. 110, 130, 146 and 164 together. I thank the Deputies for their questions. If what Deputy Bennett talked about is done, it will not be me who does it. I am fighting to try to avoid that happening. I am working really closely with the EU institutions and my counterparts in other member states to influence the negotiations for the next CAP and the next Common Fisheri…

I thank Deputies Bennet, Smith and Moynihan for raising what gets to the heart of the CAP - having enough money it in. What has been ring-fenced is 80%. It is not enough. I agree with Deputies Smith and Moynihan in terms of the importance of generational renewal, the next generation and certainty for all farmers. In direct answer to Deputy Bennett's point around the NRPP and the national regional …

At its heart was food security. The Common Agricultural Policy has been really successful and we cannot lose sight of that.

I move: That Dáil Éireann approves the following Regulations in draft: Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund Regulations 2025, copies of which were laid in draft form before Dáil Éireann on the 16th October, 2025. I am delighted to have the opportunity to address an important topic, namely, the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund Regulations 2025. I will be sharing my time with my colleague, the Ministe…

That is a shocking statement.

In the brief time I have left, I will try to make a summation of all the points that have been made and answer each one of them. I thank colleagues for their comments. I regret some of the polarisation of the language in some of the contributions, which I thought was unnecessary. This is something people from both sides of the House have strong views on. We should all respect one another's views …

We are all entitled to our own views but let us not try to knock a very large amount of people in this country who are passionate about this activity and do care about it-----

On the greyhound racing side in 2024, 358,141 people attended just short of 1,500 race meetings at 14 stadia. The economic activity point has been made by a number of Deputies regarding the attendances at those stadia, the spin-off industry that happens in the bars and restaurants outside the racing activity, the best dressed ladies, the boutiques, the hairdressers, the men's clothes shops and al…

No.

I thank Deputies for raising this issue. I acknowledge the presence of those in the Public Gallery for the debate. I intend to divide my address into two parts. On behalf of the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, I will speak to the broader issues of trade before addressing some of the specific agricultural elements of the Mercosur trade deal. Trade and our relationships with partners around…

I move: That the proposal that Dáil Éireann approves the following Regulations in draft: Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund Regulations 2025, a copy of which has been laid in draft form before Dáil Éireann on 16th October, 2025, be referred to the Joint Committee on Agriculture and Food, in accordance with Standing Order 103(5), which, not later than 20th November, 2025, shall send a message to th…

I move: That leave be given by the Dáil to introduce the following Supplementary Estimates for the service of the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2025: Vote 2 — Department of the Taoiseach (Supplementary Estimate). Vote 6 — Office of the Chief State Solicitor (Supplementary Estimate). Vote 7 — Office of the Minister for Finance (Supplementary Estimate). Vote 9 — Office of the Revenue…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. First, I extend my sympathy to the flock owner affected in Carlow. We have a 3 km protection zone and a 10 km zone in place, as is procedure. At noon today, I announced the introduction of a housing order in consultation with my colleague in Northern Ireland, the Minister, Mr. Muir. That will take effect in Ireland from next Monday because we ne…

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a really important issue. The nitrates derogation is critically important, not just for our 7,000 derogation farmers, many of whom are in County Tipperary, but for our overall rural economy and for all elements of agriculture. It comes down to land availability and many other measures. This has been a top priority for me since I became Minister for Agricultur…

I thank the Deputy for raising this point. We in government fundamentally believe in the importance of the nitrates derogation. Our 7,000 derogation farmers are operating to a higher level of environmental sustainability and with a higher level of conditionality to meet that point. We know the economic value it has for our country, with 49% of our dairy herd in derogation and producing 65% of our …

My officials are taking note of all the questions.