I continue to work on the commitment set out in the programme for Government to: Ensure that inshore waters continue to be protected for smaller fishing vessels and recreational fishers and that pair trawling will be prohibited inside the six-mile limit. That is a programme for Government commitment on which I am determined to follow through. As the Deputy said, in December 2018 the then Minister, Deputy Creed, announced that vessels over 18 m would be excluded from trawling in inshore waters inside the six-nautica…

That is a very unfair presentation and not representative of the situation at all. It is just over a month since the final judgment was returned-----

-----so it simply was not possible to do anything until we got the final judgment. Is it now four years since the whole process started? We have to make sure any step we take now meets any legal challenges and is fully robust. The team has fully assessed the previous judgment. We are now working on assessing this judgment. We have had it only a month. We will step it out. My commitment and this Government's commitment, our programme for Government commitment, is resolute. It is one of the things to which we all com…

Well, that is just a statement of fact and an obvious response to the question the Deputy asked.

There is no point in Deputy Cairns chiding me for her having received a holding response over the past two years. I cannot believe how she would expect to get anything other than a holding response for the past two years, given that the matter was being considered by the courts. It is only a month ago that we received the final judgment from the courts. Until then, any response the Deputy would have got would have been the same, that is, that we were waiting for the final judgment and were not in a position to do a…

Yes, but there is no point in chiding me for having got a holding response for that period because the Deputy would have fully expected that and would have known the answer before asking the question. Now I plan to step this forward urgently. We are now fully assessing the legal situation around that, and I will promptly move forward with this Government's total commitment to backing the inshore sector and protecting the area inside the six-nautical-mile zone for the inshore sector. We will step that out as quickly…

As Deputy Kerrane pointed out, the new Common Agricultural Policy regulations provide for the compulsory use of the area monitoring system, AMS, in member states from 1 January of this year to monitor farming activity in respect of the new basic income support scheme and the areas of natural constraint, ANC, scheme. The use of satellite data to carry out checks is not new, as we know; it has been part of the Department's inspection programme now for over 15 years. Checks by monitoring were successfully introduced i…

I will fill the Deputy in further on that in my follow-up.

I agree with the Deputy on the importance of communicating this. I was about to highlight what would happen in the case of a red status. A red status might flag up the presence of an ineligible feature such as a house, farm or roadway. It might indicate a discrepancy in the category of agricultural area, whether it is arable land, permanent crop or permanent grassland. For example, spring barley might be declared on the application, but grassland might be identified on the AMS. The introduction of the AMS is a sign…

It is a massive logistical challenge in the first year of a CAP. All the schemes are new, the IT system is new, it is a challenge for farmers getting up and running on it and it is also a massive logistical and organisational challenge for the Department to open all the new schemes, have them running and get the payments done. Once we get the first year over and we are into the second or third year, we will have a bit more scope to operate. It is much more difficult in the first year. That is why there has been som…

I thank the Deputy for raising this As he will be aware, in December 2021, following scrutiny by the European Commission, the application for PGI for “Irish Grass Fed Beef” was published in the Official Journal of the European Union for a three-month opposition procedure that was open to both EU member states and third countries. Following the submission by the United Kingdom through the member state third country consultation procedure, the Commission invited both parties to engage on the application. After extens…

That is not accurate. All of us, including the farming organisations, representatives, the Department and Bord Bia, see the value. That is why this is being developed. It will be of real benefit to have a PGI grass-fed designation for beef. It will make it more marketable and more valuable in the markets we are selling into. It is due recognition of the quality of the product. I engaged with Minister Poots throughout this. The intention was always that it would be an island of Ireland application. We had a lot more…

According to the Deputy, the former Minister, Deputy Creed, stated there was not a resonance with grass-fed beef. I doubt he said that but the problem may have been-----

There is a very strong resonance with grass-fed beef. It is widely understood in the marketplace. Grass-fed beef and grain-fed beef are two distinct products and that resonates with the consumer in most markets. It is the key selling point of our beef and it is something on which we go on the front foot when it comes to selling it internationally. The research carried out by Bord Bia indicates there is less of a resonance and cut through to the consumer on suckler beef. It is unique to Ireland. It is a wonderful pr…

-----it is not as widely understood in the markets we serve. We have a job to do to translate that wonderful product, which is not yet widely known, and develop the market for it. That is why I, as Minister, have, for the first time ever, specifically allocated €6 million to Bord Bia to develop the suckler brand. There is a committee involving all stakeholders and farm representatives to step that out and try to make sure that wonderful product gets the premium it deserves and we develop a market for it.

I thank the Deputy for her question. My Department and I continue to work on the commitment set out in the programme for Government on the banning of pair trawling inside the six-mile limit as a matter of priority. As the Deputy will be aware, in December 2018, following a public consultation process in which more than 900 submissions were received, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine announced that vessels over 18 m would be excluded from trawling in inshore waters inside the six-nautical-mile zone from …

It was not possible to do anything until I received the final judgment, which was only received just over a month ago. As I said, and I cannot be any clearer, myself and the Government have a very strong commitment to work to protect fishing inside the six nautical miles for smaller vessels and for the inshore sector and to protect the sustainability of it. Nothing could be done until we received the final judgment, which we are now fully assessing. It is going to be important in respect of the steps that we take t…

I am looking at the final court judgment to decide how we can step it out. This judgment was on a very narrow and small matter in the context of everything that was done here in respect of the whole process, where the judgment found against the Department and the policy was overturned. As the Deputy will know, it is much easier to stop something than it is to actually achieve something. All it takes is one small matter, upon which it can be decided how it should have been done, in order for something to be stopped.

In this particular instance - I have no doubt that there would have been hundreds of particular things that would have to have been followed as part of the process - all that one needs to find to strike a policy down is one small item. That is what happened in this instance. Very significant commitment, time and effort was put into the consultation process and I am now assessing this. To be clear, the Government's commitment, and mine, is to protect fishing inside the six-nautical-mile limit. I am now assessing how…

I thank the Deputy for raising this. He is right in that I have made a strong commitment that we will introduce a scheme that recognises that forgotten farmers were not able to avail of particular schemes or supports for young farmers at the time in question because they were removed. These are farmers who are continuing to farm but who did not get the same supports others would have been able to avail of or can avail of today. Much work has been done in the Department on assessing the different categories, pulling…