The facts are that exports of food products have increased exponentially. They have done very well in high-quality markets across the world. Incomes have increased over the last two years. One of issues with farming is that it is cyclical. There have been proposals on taxation. Deputies Tóibín and Paul Lawless are the doomsday couple.
TDs / Micheál Martin
Micheál Martin
Taoiseach
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questions asked
Members of the Government answer questions rather than ask them
688,766
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686,628 as a minister, 2,138 as a TD
197
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Debates they spoke in most
Plus 6,426 contributions in the regular slots, such as Leaders' Questions and Priority Questions. Speech from the chair is not counted.
Party, constituency and offices
- constituency Cork South-Central 29 November 2024 to now
- party Fianna Fáil 29 November 2024 to now
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The language switched dramatically from incredible to terrible, to the world is going to collapse at any moment.
The point I would make is that it is difficult; it is a challenging world. I think Deputy Lawless said farmers feel ignored. Let us consider ACRES, comprising €1.5 billion, with 60% of that from the Irish Exchequer and 40% from the European Union. Admittedly, some of it is funded by the carbon tax but it provides incomes to 50,000 farmers.
The Deputy never mentioned the derogation. We are the only country in European Union that has a derogation from the nitrates directive. We voted against the Mercosur deal but we negotiated for safeguards, just as we will negotiate for an increase in CAP.
Calm down.
Did the Deputy not hear me saying that? We have to negotiate it up. The only way we can do it is by negotiation, just as we negotiated on Mercosur to get safeguards in place. Our MEPs got safeguards in place, better than they were a year ago, because the likelihood was that if one of the bigger states went for Mercosur, the blocking minority would go.
The safeguards were very important to get done.
No one is smug at all about anything. To be frank with the Deputies, the Members of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael know an awful lot more about agriculture than the two of them together.
Deputy Ó Murchú-----
I want to reply to Deputy Ó Murchú-----
-----who is one of the more consistent Members in the House. He is here consistently every Tuesday, to give him his due. He said that he met the two Commissioners and so did I. One of the issues I had was the issue with the CAP and the need to impress on those Commissioners that the CAP is not where we want it to be in terms of income levels for Irish farmers. My sense of that conversation is that we have some distan…
They did not say that to me. That is probably a matter higher up the scale.
Deputy Heneghan somehow got the adaptation measures in Clontarf into the agriculture debate.
Flood defences are a serious issue in its own right. I do not know why the Deputy is not allowed to take photos. Of course, he should be allowed to take photos. I presume he took them anyway. I would say he did, given form. I do not know; I will check it. There should be full transparency. Is the Deputy saying the flood scheme is not being allowed? I do not know, but there should be full transparency in these matters…
I am coming to him. The bulk of the plan is on vaccination. The scientific advice is different. The advice is-----
There will be a hell of a lot of vaccination this year. The budget has gone up significantly to €157 million. There will be vaccination and there will also be the wildlife measures because there is transmission. It is not as simple as the Deputy has articulated.
In response to Deputy McGuinness, farmers are not ignored. I just spoke about ACRES, the derogation and the various funding mechanisms we have taken in to s…
I am talking about CETA at the moment.
We opposed Mercosur.
While I cannot verify it, one of the Commissioners told me last week that a few food producers went out on an EU mission to Mercosur countries, showing that some people will see if they can get opportunities there. On CETA, we did well and the embassy in Ottawa in Canada did a fantastic study on the economic benefits of CETA for Ireland and for the Canada-Ireland trade relationship.
No, but the Deputy says we are ignoring-----
Why is he talking about Brazil?
I already told him that we voted against Mercosur.
We got safeguards in. We are not ignoring farmers. About a month ago, I went to the AGM of the IFA, just before this latest round. There is no sense of ignoring. In fact, it was quite an agreeable, good conversation. I listened, as did the Minister, Deputy Heydon, and the Ministers of State, Deputies Dooley and Healy-Rae. The was no reference to the Bord Bia issue, which may not have surfaced at the time. There was n…
It is just throwing out words that mean nothing. There was never any sense that farmers were being ignored by this Government, nor could there have been.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 17 to 41, inclusive, together.
The Cabinet committee on children and education oversees the implementation of programme for Government commitments in the area of children and education. It receives detailed reports on identified policy areas such as child poverty and well-being, and education. The membership of the Cabinet committee on children and education comprises the Taoiseach, …
I am sorry, which Gaelscoil?