Martin Kenny

There is no dispute that an office of this nature is required. International co-operation, especially in regard to electronic data is obviously something we continually need as we move into the modern age. An awful lot of criminal cases will reach for information that is being stored in the cloud somewhere and an application will have to be made to try to pull that information down. That can often…

I wish to raise a cross-Border issue with regard to the poultry industry. North of the Border, the poultry industry is an important and large industry. Of course, a byproduct of that is poultry litter. Poultry litter contains a high level of phosphates. As a result of the North already having an abundance of them, and the South having a deficit, poultry litter has traditionally always been exporte…

I thank the Social Democrats for bringing this forward this morning. The truth is we cannot have a situation where the world stands idly by but that is what has been happening, not just in the couple of years since Israel started bombarding Gaza but for decades. For more than half a century, we have seen Israel treat the Palestinian people as not just second class but as third- and fourth-class c…

I acknowledge the huge work that has been done by so many people around the country, particularly in a voluntary capacity to develop the tourism package that we offer to people. Tourists come to Ireland for a number of reasons. There is leisure tourism and activity tourism. We have a lot of that in my region with the Shannon waterway among others. We also have a lot of hill walking, etc. In addit…

It is a Wiffen and a Griffin.

It is now eight years since the occupied territories Bill was first proposed. Fianna Fáil said that it would support that Bill and that it wanted to see it move through the Oireachtas. For those eight years, there has been foot dragging every time the Bill has come up. The reality is that the people who live in the occupied territories continue to suffer under a cruel and harsh regime that continu…

We recognise that so many people were suffering so much as a consequence of the fuel crisis that many of them took to the streets and expressed huge frustration about a situation that was outside their control and about which they felt the Government could do much more. We all acknowledge the Government was not able to stop the war that caused the crisis in the first place but it could certainly h…

I want to raise with the Taoiseach the issue of the flotilla. As he knows, Dr. Margaret Connolly is a constituent of mine from County Sligo. She and 11 others have been detained by Israel on the open seas in international waters. Their boats were invaded and taken over by military force and people were taken by military force back to Israel. We do not know who they are, where they are, where they …

A trickle.

Biodiversity may sound like a buzz word but the reality is that it means all life on Earth - from the smallest micro-organism to the largest mammal and the tallest tree. It covers all ecosystems and habitats which shows how all life is connected and dependent on each other for survival, including us humans. Humans are the biggest threat to biodiversity. It is said that over 30% of habitats in Irel…

That mess continues to this day. The actions of the Government on the one side can often damage biodiversity on the other side.

I commend Deputy Ó Broin on bringing forward this motion. We clearly have a situation where rents and evictions are out of control in every part of the country and it is spiralling at an alarming rate. At the moment, I am dealing with a group of houses in my constituency in Enniscrone, Sonas. It is elder care accommodation beside a nursing home. Older people who live there have received eviction n…

It is welcome that the Commission has decided it wants to ban Brazilian beef and other food products coming into Europe in spite of the Mercosur trade agreement. It has come to this late in the day. Many of us have been calling out Mercosur and the situation we have with the trade agreement for decades. Deputy Carthy, as an MEP, led the charge in the European Union. At one stage Phil Hogan accepte…

We appreciate that there has been some progress made but we still have a situation where there is no traceability whatsoever with animals, particularly in Brazil. When a calf is born in Ireland it has to be tagged almost immediately. There have to be full checks and records of any medicine or antibiotics it receives. Everything has to be written down and accounted for. They have to meet all the st…

82. Deputy Martin Kenny asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide an update on negotiations in relation to the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, budget and the proposal to cut payments to farmers in receipt of the State pension and farmers with off-farm income. [35915/26]

I want to get an update on CAP negotiations in relation to the proposals from the Commission, which are very concerning for many farmers and people in the food industry. The Commission is talking about a major cut in the funding. We need to do everything to ensure that this does not happen for agriculture in Ireland and across the European Union. We also need to see a big push-back on the notion f…

I appreciate that and understand that a great deal of work has to be done. Central to all this will be that period when Ireland holds the Presidency. We need to ensure CAP is properly funded. For many of these situations regarding off-farm income, whether a pension or whatever else, there needs to be a recognition that the vast majority of farmers need an off-farm income to make the farm viable. T…

I appreciate that. We need to develop a strategy around generational renewal which recognises that the older farmer is part of the farm. The previous situations where farmers felt they had an exclusion order and could not go near the place any more if they went into any of these schemes is totally inappropriate. We need to find a way to do this in partnership so we have generational renewal to mak…

This question relates to the TB action plan. I would like to get an update on it. The new rules came in last month. A lot of farmers and farm organisations have been critical of the level of communication they have received from the Department in regard to the new rules, how it is set out, the new categories and all of that. We need to see very clear communications to ensure that farmers know they…

I thank the Minister. I appreciate all of that and that there is work being done. The marts have been central to this because that is where a lot of farmers are coming into the situation. They are unaware of what category their cattle fall into when they are going to the mart, and that is a big issue because then they do not know who can buy them. A lot of farmers are finding it very difficult to …

I am not disagreeing with the Minister in that regard but the difficulty we have is that farmers who want to play ball and work with the system are finding it very difficult to do so because they do not understand it. It is not clear. The Minister said that being "clear and concise" was vital. It has not been made clear to farmers and they are very concerned that they do not know what impact this …

112. Deputy Martin Kenny asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the steps his Department is taking to reverse the decline in volume of beef exports to the EU and the UK; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35477/26]

I want to ask the Minister about the declining volume of beef exports, particularly to the UK and the EU, over the past 12 to 18 months and the impact it is having on the sector. It is very clear that many farmers out there are not producing to the same level they had been. We also have the situation in regard to the Mercosur countries when it comes to beef, particularly. There is talk of banning…

I appreciate that the value of products has gone up because prices have gone up. The price that is returned for beef internationally, particularly for higher quality product, has increased over the past number of years. That is because of a reduction in the number of cattle across Europe and many other parts of the world. It is creating that buoyancy in the market. The reality from an Irish perspe…

Why wait until September?