Written Answers Nos. 196-202
197. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to grant a licence for cultivating mussels to a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11006/16]
View answerThe application referred to by the Deputy is on behalf of Sneem Fishermen’s Cooperative Society Ltd (which includes the individual identified by the Deputy). The relevant sites are located within Kenmare Bay which is designated as a Special Area of Conservation under the EU Habitats Directive (Natura 2000 site).
All applications in ‘Natura’ areas are required to be appropriately assessed for the purpose of environmental compliance with the EU Birds and /or Habitats Directives. An Appropriate Assessment has been carried out by the Marine Institute in respect of Kenmare Bay Special Area of Conservation. My Department has prepared an Appropriate Assessment Conclusion Statement which outlines how it is proposed to licence aquaculture in Kenmare Bay Special Area of Conservation in compliance with the Habitats Directive. This Conclusion Statement is available on the Department’s website.
In addition to Natura requirements, under EU Environmental Impact Assessment Directives all licence applications must undergo an Environmental Impact Screening Assessment. This requires significant input from my Department’s scientific and technical advisors. All applications, in compliance with the requirements of the applicable legislation, are advertised in order to facilitate public consultation, and submissions or observations received must be considered as part of the licence determination process.
While the Appropriate Assessment is carried out on a bay-wide basis, each licence application within the bay must be assessed individually. My Department has been in recent communication with the applicant in respect of elements of the application and the process of determining the application is ongoing at this time.
Every effort is being made to expedite the determination of this aquaculture licence application having regard to all the complexities involved.
198. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the measures he takes to protect the welfare of greyhounds exported outside of Ireland; if he has concerns as to the welfare of greyhounds exported to the Macau Special Administrative Region in China; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11061/16]
View answer199. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of greyhounds exported by country in each of the past five years in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11062/16]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 198 and 199 together.
Once appropriate animal health and welfare certification requirements are met, dogs, including greyhounds, may be exported internationally. Health certification arrangements are in place and exporters are also required to comply with the provisions of Council Regulation (EC) No 1 of 2005 on the protection of animals during transport. A range of flight carriers make the appropriate arrangements for the safe transport of animals worldwide in accordance with the requirements of International Air Transport.
With regard to the export of greyhounds to Macau, the Irish Greyhound Board (IGB) has recently advised all owners involved in the export of greyhounds to only export to destinations that provide the expected levels of care and management as defined in the IGBs Code of Practice for the welfare of greyhounds. I fully endorse this view.
There are no requirements or facilities for recording the breed of dog as part of the export certification process. Accordingly, it is not possible to provide the Deputy with the breakdown of export trade statistics he is seeking. In addition, up to 2014, dogs moved freely between Ireland and the UK. However, following the implementation of EU Regulations 576/13 and 577/13, a more detailed breakdown of canine exports to EU countries from Ireland from 2015 onwards is available and these are set out in the following table. Exports to third countries are not recorded centrally; however I understand that 9 dogs were exported recently to China.
|
Country of Destination |
Number of Animals Exported in 2015 |
Number of Animals Exported 1 Jan. to 16 May 2016 |
|
Belgium |
50 |
17 |
|
Czech Republic |
80 |
16 |
|
Denmark |
12 |
5 |
|
Finland |
0 |
9 |
|
France |
29 |
3 |
|
Germany |
277 |
112 |
|
Greece |
1 |
16 |
|
Italy |
362 |
137 |
|
Luxembourg |
0 |
2 |
|
Lithuania |
1 |
0 |
|
Malta |
3 |
0 |
|
Netherlands |
18 |
8 |
|
Norway |
2 |
11 |
|
Poland |
1 |
0 |
|
Portugal |
70 |
42 |
|
Slovenia |
4 |
8 |
|
Spain |
44 |
13 |
|
Sweden |
580 |
459 |
|
Switzerland |
26 |
6 |
|
United Kingdom |
9,256 |
3,628 |
|
10,816 |
4,492 |
200. Deputy Bobby Aylward asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to expedite a payment to a person (details supplied) under the agri-environment options scheme whose payment has been delayed by five months, as a result of being selected for a random audit which was subsequently passed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11070/16]
View answerThe person named commenced their AEOS contract on 1 September 2010. Payment issued for the 2010-2014 Scheme years. Under the EU Regulations governing the Scheme and other area-based payment schemes, a comprehensive administrative check, including cross-checks with the Land Parcel Identification System must take place. As all AEOS 1 participants will be receiving their final payments under the scheme, re-checks on payments made for all scheme years must be completed before final payment can be processed. Officials are working through these files and payment will be made as soon as possible.
201. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to urgently suspend for a period the agreement in place whereby farmers who had a superlevy payment that they were agreeing to repay over a three-year period, given the crisis in the dairy industry and that payments are due to be deducted from approximately 3,000 farmers commencing in May 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11074/16]
View answerAs the Deputy may be aware, the a facility to phase the final superlevy payment over three years was introduced by the EU Commission last year at Ireland’s request. Farmers availing of the facility must pay at least one third of the bill in each of the first two years (2015 and 2016) with the balance to be paid in 2017. The Department implemented the scheme nationally and 3,741 farmers (out of a total of 6,109 farmers who incurred the levy) deferred repayments of €35.6m in superlevy liability, (out of a total national levy liability of €71.2m).
The mechanism required the Exchequer to pay the superlevy liability to the EU in full in 2015, and to recover the levy from farmers over the three years from 2015 to 2017. A wide process of consultation in the design of the scheme was undertaken with farm organisations and co-ops and it was agreed that once the initial farmer instalment was paid in 2015, the optimum repayment model for the balancing payments would involve ten equal instalments from the months of May-September in 2016 and 2017.
These amounts will be deducted by co-ops from a farmer’s monthly milk cheques to coincide with the peak milk supply months of April to August. The co-ops will then forward the money each month to the Department. This approach was also agreed as part of the sanction given by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.
As part of the discussions in the run-up to the March Council of Agriculture Ministers, Ireland proposed a further deferral of the payment to 2017 and 2018, to ease the financial burden on liable farmers in 2016. However the European Commission advised that the legal basis for the Regulations under-pinning the scheme are no longer in existence and therefore further amendments were not possible. While Ireland suggested a possible alternative legal approach, it was clear that the proposal enjoyed very little support from other Member States and was therefore unlikely to succeed.
On that basis the focus turned to other measures in the package which can be of assistance to Irish dairy farmers to help them through current difficulties, including the doubling of intervention fixed price buying-in thresholds. I did however raise the matter with Commissioner Phil Hogan in our recent bilateral meeting, as well as at yesterday’s Council of Minister’s meeting, and encouraged the Commission to reflect again on whether a legal basis could be found to facilitate a further deferral in superlevy repayments for farmers.
202. Deputy Michael McGrath asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to investigate a matter (details supplied); the procedures that govern such an export; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11163/16]
View answerOnce appropriate animal health and welfare certification requirements are met, dogs, including greyhounds, may be exported internationally. Health certification arrangements are in place and exporters are also required to comply with the provisions of Council Regulation (EC) No 1 of 2005 on the protection of animals during transport. A range of flight carriers make the appropriate arrangements for the safe transport of animals worldwide in accordance with the requirements of International Air Transport. The Irish Greyhound Board (IGB) has advised all owners involved in the export of greyhounds to only export to destinations that provide the expected levels of care and management as defined in the IGBs Code of Practice for the welfare of greyhounds. I fully endorse this view. I understand that the 24 greyhounds referred to in the attachments have returned to Ireland and were inspected by officers of my Department and found to be in good health.
