Written Answers Nos. 364-383
365. Deputy Michael McNamara asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of persons within his Department who are working remotely on a part-time or full-time basis in County Clare in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48728/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn line with Government advice, my Department implemented a phased, return-to-the-workplace schedule in February 2022. Since March, staff have been required to attend the workplace on a minimum of three days per week.
Currently, staff who wish to work remotely for up to two days per week can request this option through their local management. All applications for remote working are approved by managers with due consideration to the suitability of both the applicant and the role, along with the requirements of relevant teams and business areas.
For the future, as required under the Blended Working Policy Framework for Civil Service Organisations, my Department has launched its own Blended Working Policy which enables staff to enter into a formally arrangement to work remotely up to two days per week.
The facility for making this formal application for blended working commenced on 3rd October 2022 and the formalised arrangements are scheduled to begin from 17th October 2022. It is envisaged that information on specific locations will be available after that point.
366. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason for the delay in issuing a green low-carbon agri-environment scheme payment to a person (details supplied). [48780/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe person named was approved into the GLAS 2 scheme with a contract commencement date of 1st January 2016. Payments subsequently issued for scheme years 2016 – 2020 inclusive.
A change of contract request was received by GLAS Transfer Section November 2020. This transfer request was approved and notification of the approval and the GLAS extension offer issued to the person named by letter dated 12th March 2021. This letter contained details on how to avail of the GLAS extension. The option of extending the GLAS Contract was not taken at this time.
An appeal was received to the GLAS section which was lodged from the Agricultural Advisor of the person named on 12th September 2022 regarding the GLAS extension. This appeal is currently being considered. The person named will be notified in writing on the outcome of this appeal shortly.
367. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide a breakdown of the number of calls registered with the confidential animal welfare helpline by year; and the number of those calls that concerned canine welfare in tabular form. [48801/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraA breakdown of the calls received by the animal welfare helpline operated by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) related to dogs and investigated by DAFM for each year since 2017 is listed in the table below.
DAFM works closely with animal welfare organisations and particularly with authorised officers of the IPSCA and DSPCA in relation to canine welfare. DAFM also receives a further number of canine related animal welfare calls and emails which are re-directed to these organisations and these are not included in the figures below.
|
Year |
Total Animal welfare Complaints |
Specific to Canines |
|
2017 |
668 |
5 |
|
2018 |
944 |
3 |
|
2019 |
612 |
12 |
|
2020 |
851 |
4 |
|
2021 |
880 |
6 |
368. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of veterinarian surgeons on the approved inseminators register of an organisation (details supplied); and if any veterinarians have had their insemination licence revoked by the organisation. [48802/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraCoursing is regulated under the Greyhound Industry Act, 1958, chiefly by the Irish Coursing Club (ICC), subject to the general control and direction of Rásaíocht Con Éireann. Hare coursing is managed and regulated by the Irish Coursing Club (ICC). The organisation consists of 89 affiliated clubs from Ireland and Northern Ireland, all of whom must abide by the ICC’s rules and regulations.
The ICC has informed this Department that there are three veterinary practitioners registered as approved inseminators and there is one application pending. There have been no licence revocations.
369. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of officers affiliated with an organisation (details supplied) appointed. [48803/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraCoursing is regulated under the Greyhound Industry Act, 1958, chiefly by the Irish Coursing Club (ICC), subject to the general control and direction of Rásaíocht Con Éireann. Hare coursing is managed and regulated by the Irish Coursing Club (ICC). The organisation consists of 89 affiliated clubs from Ireland and Northern Ireland, all of whom must abide by the ICC’s rules and regulations.
The ICC has informed this Department that there are 12 Control Stewards and 2 Stipendiary Stewards affiliated to the ICC.
370. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of inspections carried out by authorised officers of an organisation (details supplied) on approved insemination centres per year for the past five years; the number of insemination centres licensed by the organisation that have had their licence revoked; and the number that have not had their licence renewed in tabular form. [48804/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraCoursing is regulated under the Greyhound Industry Act, 1958, chiefly by the Irish Coursing Club (ICC), subject to the general control and direction of Rásaíocht Con Éireann. Hare coursing is managed and regulated by the Irish Coursing Club (ICC). The organisation consists of 89 affiliated clubs from Ireland and Northern Ireland, all of whom must abide by the ICC’s rules and regulations.
The ICC has informed this Department that the number of insemination centres that have had their licence revoked and the number that have not had their licence renewed is nil in the last five years. Below is the number of inspections for the last five years in tabular form.
Number of Inspections carried out by Authorised Officers on approved Insemination Centres
|
Year |
Number |
|
2022 |
5 to date |
|
2021 |
2 |
|
2020 |
0 (Covid) |
|
2019 |
5 |
|
2018 |
9 |
371. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will ensure that a clear message goes from Government to the multiples that an adequate price needs to be paid, without delay, to pig and poultry primary producers in view of the difficulties facing those sectors at present; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48958/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraFarmers should be adequately rewarded for the work they put into ensuring that Irish food has an assurance of quality, safety and taste.
In general, retail multiples do not purchase pig meat or poultry meat directly from farmer suppliers, but from meat processing companies. Prices paid to farmers or charged to consumers are not controlled by Government and are, obviously, subject to market demands.
It is, critically important that operators along the supply chain recognise their mutual dependency. Farmers are small businesses and are vulnerable to price volatility. They need to make a reasonable economic return for their output if the supply of high quality pigmeat and poultry is to be maintained.
It is critically important that farm families and food producers are treated fairly. The establishment of the Office for Fairness and Transparency in the Agri-Food Supply Chain is one of my priorities as Minister, and I am confident it will be an advocate and provide a voice for farmers, fishers, growers and other food businesses all along the agricultural and food supply chain.
I am pleased to have announced this week that the recruitment process for the CEO of the new Office has begun. By having the competition in parallel with the legislative process, I want to ensure that the Office is up and running as early as possible.
373. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if all his Department’s buildings have recycling arrangements in place; if not, the steps that are being taken to ensure that the recycling of workplace waste is facilitated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49555/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has recycling arrangements in place for the appropriate disposal of multiple products including general waste, compostable waste, recyclable waste, glass bottles, confidential waste, polystyrene recycling, WEEE recycling and furniture recycling. In the main, all services are secured through the OGP Framework with service providers adhering to the ISO 140001, environmental management systems, standard.
DAFM also adheres to the ISO27001 security protocol for the re-use of computer hardware. Depending on the device, my Department recycles ICT related hardware that becomes redundant/obsolete via four options, which are: internal redeployment, external redeployment, external recycling or physical destruction.
In addition to the above and to encourage greater segregation of waste, new clearly labelled coloured bins, facilitating staff to separate waste into general, recycled and compostable waste, have been purchased allowing for the removal of small individual desk bins. These bins are currently being distributed to Department offices nationwide.
Furthermore, in order to drive sustainable practices locally, DAFM has an established network of Green Teams throughout its own nationwide network of offices. The Green Teams consists of volunteer representatives at all grades who serve as green champions throughout the various locations. The Green Team's goals are to raise awareness and implement practices locally which reduce my Department’s environmental footprint, encourage waste segregation, recycling and support biodiversity projects.
374. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development when the Pobal maps on deprivation levels will be updated with the data from the most recent census. [48752/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraPobal works on behalf of Government to support communities and local agencies toward achieving social inclusion and development. As part of this service, they have developed 'Pobal Maps', a free Geographical Information System (GIS) informed by census data which provides a range of functions, such as area deprivation profiling, details on Childcare Services, plus a range of other funded services throughout the Republic of Ireland.
The Census 2022 data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) is expected to be available in Q2/Q3 2023 and Pobal expect to have the updated deprivation data available on Pobal maps by October 2023.
375. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development if funding allocations will be provided regarding community hubs (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48770/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraOur Rural Future, Ireland’s Rural Development Policy was launched in early 2021. The policy recognises the opportunity for rural rejuvenation that remote working presents and commits to establishing a comprehensive and integrated national network of 400 remote working hubs by 2025.
In furtherance of this commitment, my Department’s focus to date has been on strategically developing the National Hub Network, the Network's shared online booking platform connectedhubs.ie, adding capacity to Ireland's existing remote working infrastructure, and supporting the establishment of new hubs.
There are currently 290 remote and co-working facilities across the country on-boarded to the connectedhubs.ie platform. This number is growing all the time meaning we are well on track to meet our target of 400 remote working hubs nationwide by 2025.
Over €100m has been invested by my department in the development of remote working facilities through programmes such as the Town and Village Renewal Scheme and the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund. Successful projects are developed in collaboration with local authorities and communities with many projects seeing vacant and derelict buildings in rural towns and villages converted into remote working hubs.
On 8 June, I announced that 81 projects across the country were successful in securing funding via the Connected Hubs Call 2022, allocating €5 million in funding to add additional capacity to the existing remote working infrastructure in remote working hubs and Broadband Connection Points throughout the country. This follows the award of almost €9 million under the Connected Hubs Call in 2021.
In addition to the National Hub Network, my department is working closely with officials at the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) to establish the nationwide network of Broadband Connection Points (BCPs).
BCPs are publicly accessible facilities, typically community centres and sports clubs, in predominantly rural and isolated areas. These facilities offer onsite internet access for a variety of community uses, including skills training and STEM activities for children and young people, eHealth initiatives and remote working. To date 282 of 300 sites are live, with the remainder scheduled for completion this year.
To date my focus has been on establishing the National Hub Network and the BCP network and on achieving the initial critical mass. Following strong progress on the establishment phase of both projects, my focus has now shifted to the next stage of development. To this end, my officials have been consulting with hub managers across the country, with local authorities and communities, and with other stakeholders, to better inform the future strategic direction of the National Hub Network, the connectedhubs.ie platform and the BCP program.
376. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development if additional monies will be made available for the local improvement scheme for the remainder of 2022 (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48922/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra377. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the amount of money has been allocated to Donegal County Council for the local improvement scheme for each of the years 2017 to 2021, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48923/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra381. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the number of roads in County Donegal that were improved with funding from the local improvement scheme for each of the years 2017 to 2021, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48924/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 376, 377 and 381 together.
As part of Our Rural Future, the Government is committed to ensuring that the Local Improvement Scheme (LIS) is funded into the future. The LIS supports the improvement of rural roads and laneways that are not normally maintained by local authorities. The scheme makes an important contribution to connectivity in rural Ireland.
The Scheme was reintroduced in 2017 following a number of years with no dedicated funding. From 2017 to 2021, improvement works have been completed on over 3,000 non-public roads and lanes benefiting over 13,300 landowners and residents in these rural areas.
Since the LIS was reintroduced in 2017 the aggregate investment has now surpassed €100 million.
In 2022, the base funding for the Scheme was increased from €10.5 million to €11 million. I announced details of the first round of funding under LIS in April, which included €716,560 allocated to Donegal County Council.
To address demand, and following the identification of savings in other capital areas, I was delighted to be in a position to double the overall provision for the Scheme to €22 million this August. As a result, the initial funding of €716,560 allocated to Donegal was increased to some €1.71 million. This brings the total allocated to County Donegal since 2017 to just under €9.43 million, the largest allocation to any county since the scheme was reintroduced.
As part of Budget 2023, I was pleased to announce a further increase in the base funding from €11 million to €12 million.
Set out in the table below is the funding allocation and the associated number of LIS roads upgraded in Donegal under the Scheme over the period 2017 to 2021.
|
YEAR |
FUNDING |
NO. OF ROADS |
|
2017 |
€3,384,000 |
227 |
|
2018 |
€1,792,516 |
106 |
|
2019 |
€677,456 |
35 |
|
2020 |
€677,456 |
35 |
|
2021 |
€1,188,403 |
67 |
|
TOTAL |
€7,719,831 |
470 |
378. Deputy Michael McNamara asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the status of the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund category 1 funding application submitted by Clare County Council to her Department for the Kilrush Maritime Training Centre; when a decision will be made on the application; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48700/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Rural Regeneration and Development Fund provides funding for the development and construction of capital projects in towns and villages and rural areas across Ireland. To date, 191 projects have been approved for funding of €279 million for projects costing €379 million.
Calls for applications to the Fund are sought under two categories – Category 1 and Category 2. Category 1 relates to large scale ambitious capital projects with all necessary planning and other consents in place, and which are ready to proceed. Category 2 provides smaller grant funding to enable the development of project proposals suitable for future calls for Category 1 applications.
The fourth call for Category 1 applications to the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund closed on the 29th April 2022. My Department received 42 applications to this call, together seeking funding of over €149 million. I understand that an application was received for the project referred to by the Deputy.
The application process for the Fund is competitive in nature. Applications are currently being assessed by my Department under the oversight of the Project Advisory Board, comprised of representatives from key Government Departments and independent experts. Once the assessment process is complete, my Department will prepare a report setting out recommended projects. My role as Minister will be to consider that report and make final decisions in relation to the allocation of funding.
I expect to be in a position to announce the successful projects in the coming weeks.
379. Deputy Michael McNamara asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the number of persons within her Department who are working remotely on a part-time or full-time basis in County Clare in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48741/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Department of Rural and Community Development (DRCD) was established on 19th July 2017 to provide a renewed and consolidated focus on rural and community development in Ireland.
My Department has a Blended Working Policy in place and the vast majority of staff located in my Department's offices in Dublin and Ballina, Co. Mayo are working on a bended basis. My Department does not have any offices located in County Clare.
380. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development if he will provide an update on a CLÁR application (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48835/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraThis year's CLÁR programme was launched in February with a total budget of €7 million. This represents an increase of €1.5 million on the budget for the 2021 CLÁR programme. The measures funded under CLÁR 2022 were
- Measure 1: Developing Community Facilities and Amenities
- Measure 2: Mobility, Cancer Care and Community First Responders Transport
-Measure 3: ‘Our Islands’
The 2022 CLÁR programme is now closed for all measures. Announcements on successful applications under all three measures have been made and these details can be found on my Department’s website.
I am happy to confirm that the particular application referred to by the Deputy was successful under Measure 1 of the Scheme.
382. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the details of any contracts or services procured by her Department with top security, including any that are subcontracted to top security; the value of such contracts since 2015 to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49004/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraI can confirm to the Deputy that my Department has not procured any contracts, subcontracts or services from the organisation referenced.
383. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development if all her Department’s buildings have recycling arrangements in place; if not, the steps that are being taken to ensure that the recycling of workplace waste is facilitated; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49558/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department is undertaking a number of measures in terms of recycling in our offices. These efforts are led by our internal Green, Energy and Organisational (GEO) Committee, which oversees a number of initiatives to promote recycling and ensure energy conservation and environmental sustainability as part of our work.
In terms of our offices in Trinity Point, Dublin 2 and Government Buildings in Ballina, our waste collection procedures require waste streams to be segregated and placed in designated bins, such as general waste, paper, plastic, aluminium/steel/tin, compost, glass, toners, batteries etc.
In terms of ICT hardware, my Department seeks to fully utilise all our computer hardware until it has reached end of life, subject to value for money assessments, with a view to reducing our consumption of resources in this area. However, my Department also has recycling arrangements in place for ICT hardware once end of life is realised.
