Paul Daly
Agricultural Panel · Fianna Fáil · Ireland
“I am a converted EV driver – I will receive my third electric vehicle on Friday. I charge at home and I have solar panels but I have done a night rate deal with the ESB whereby between the hours of 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. I can get electricity at 10 cent a unit.”
“At the outset I would like to be associated with the words of the Deputy Leader on the passing of David Andrews. I want to extend my personal sympathies to our colleague, Barry Andrews MEP, his nephew, Chris, our colleague here in the Seanad, and the extended Andrews family.”
“It is way more expensive to go to a fast charger than it is to fill up with diesel or petrol. We need the Minister in here. We need to discuss the infrastructure and the pricing.”
“Perhaps we could also incorporate into the discussion with the Minister awareness of the prevalence of the diseases that are now evident in the agriculture sector. We heard a lot of talk about bluetongue over the winter months, including that it would not be a threat until temperatures went over 12°C.”
“I belatedly congratulate our former colleague and former Leader, Deputy Seán Kyne, on his election. I also congratulate Deputy Daniel Ennis. I do not know Deputy Ennis personally. I have always found Deputy Kyne to be a good colleague, a good friend and a very fair and impartial Leader. I wish him every success in the Lower House.”
“It is very hard to appreciate it at a time when the weather is fine. This may only be a window. It may not be as fine next week. The cycle comes and goes. Farmers need to just stop and think that the work always gets done. It does not all have to be done today. I urge that we would create awareness on that.”
The complete record
Every one of 256 lines we hold for Paul Daly, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 2 of 6.
“I welcome the Minister here today. I want to be associated with the previous comments also. I compliment the Minister and thank him and his staff for the efficiency with which they have dealt with this issue. If it was not for the targeted surveillance, we probably would not even know there was bluetongue here. It was important that we got out there. That testing has been going on for a long time. When we had an outbreak, the Minister organised a briefing in his Department for spokespeople from the different parties. It was very informative and very reassuring. While this is a major issue for the Irish family farms and they are worried about it, we do not need to do any scaremongering either. We need to reassure. As Senator Boyhan said, we need to reassure the customer. There are no human health issues with this.”
“This is a move in the right direction and will be accepted by the people who will see through the rhetoric of the hurlers on the ditch who portray themselves as representatives of tenants but think we can have tenants without having landlords. It is not possible.”
“It is easy for people who champion themselves as the representatives of tenants to put out soundbites that we are pro-landlord, pro-major developer and pro-vulture fund. Without landlords, we would not have tenants. We have to have landlords. We are not lining anybody's pockets. We are enhancing the potential for their homes to be rented to potential tenants at the market rate and no more, with longer terms of fixed tenure. I will not go into any more detail on the Bill. We will have plenty of time next week. Contrary to what was said earlier, we have allocated plenty of time next week to go through this Bill with a fine-tooth comb and deal with amendments and whatever. I cannot accept the rhetoric, the soundbites and the Facebook ticks of populism.”
“I welcome the Bill. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, who has replaced the Minister, Deputy Browne. I compliment both of them along with their officials on taking the steps they did. It is very hard to bring in any legislation which will only have long-term benefits. Some people want to see the gold-plated results the next day and if they do not, they will not make a decision at all. I compliment the Minister and the Minister of State on the courage of their convictions. There are hard decisions to be made and they are making them. One can only welcome a Bill that will increase the supply of rental homes, restrict no-fault evictions and enhance tenancy protections. It is replacing the RPZs, which were not working. We are big enough to admit they were not working and we are now bringing in national rent control.”
“Even if it is only the craic with the lads on the site, you still are actually learning. I am glad to see the apprenticeship back and long may it continue to improve and prosper.”
“I trained in Thomond College, which is now part of the University of Limerick. It does not exist any more, but it was a specific metalwork teacher training course. I did my leaving certificate in June and July, I went to college in October and the following February I was on four weeks' teacher training practice, standing in front of a classroom. This was six months, or a little more, after I had been on the other side of the desk in the classroom. While daunting at the time, it was hands-on working and being with fellow professionals in the staff room. I learned more in that staff room in those four weeks of the teacher practice and in the hands-on scenario than I ever learned from lectures or books. It is no different in any other trade. It is not just the skills; it is the people you are learning the skills with.”
“In that regard, when we are designing and formulating our qualifications, one of the big things is to have international recognition, whereby we would recognise the apprenticeships of other countries and ours would be recognised by theirs. The world is a lot smaller now and people do a lot more travelling. International recognition is an important part. It is one of our recommendations in the report I mentioned. It is vital that apprenticeships be upgraded from level 6 to level 7 on the national framework of qualifications. That would give a lot more parity of esteem with the other alternatives of education. A long time ago, I spent some time in the education sector. I am a qualified metalwork teacher. As a councillor, I chaired the Longford-Westmeath Education and Training Board.”
“The companies that are developing the technologies probably have a huge role to play in training operators and skilled workers to operate the new technologies. We need a lot more emphasis in second level education on career guidance teachers, as we used to call them, or counsellors, to promote apprenticeships. I welcomed the announcement of the Minister, Deputy Lawless, of the all-island accounting technologist apprenticeship, which the Minister of State mentioned. I am of that generation where apprenticeships are associated with blocklayers, bricklayers and electricians, but now we have accounting technologists. That this is one of the first moves on an all-island basis is ideal and brilliant to hear. It can only become more successful and I hope we will have more and more all-island initiatives such as this.”
“There has to be somebody prepared to take on the apprentice and somewhere they can go then to do the learning side of it while, at the end of the day, there will not be that many vacancies for qualified farriers in the country. I am just using that as one example. Another example I use where there is a major challenge for us is in the evolving modern technologies. You could go off to become a blocklayer a few years ago with your bag on your back, with a trowel, a lump hammer, a spirit level, a tape and a role of string in it, and you would become a blocklayer. Now you will need access, in my opinion, to 3D printers. As these technologies evolve, we need to be in a position, as soon as they become available, to train people and let people serve their time on how to use and operate them.”
“We now have worked our way right back around and proven to ourselves, which we have to do on so many occasions, that the betterment was not that at all, that we actually had it right at the start. I am delighted to see that we are now going back to more and more of an earn-as-you-learn scenario. To hear the Minister of State say there are 78 programmes is unbelievable, and there is such a diversity. Where the real problem for us as educators to overcome will be is with the ones who have the fine skills where there will be very few jobs but we still have to train people. Because I have a love of horses, I think of the likes of training farriers. That has to be an apprenticeship.”
“I think most people here went to those recommendations when they were doing their homework for today because I have them all, or most of them, here in front of me and they have all been mentioned by others. Some of them are important enough to rehash. I am of a vintage where apprenticeships were a big thing. You did your junior cert, or inter cert, as it was called at the time, and then you went off and did an apprenticeship. You served your time, hands-on on the job, and you will never learn anything like you will hands-on in any trade or any skill in life. However, then, of course, we had to better ourselves, or we thought we were bettering ourselves, and we gradually worked our way to a point where nearly everybody had to go to university and we left the trades, the apprenticeships and that earn-as-you-learn scenario behind us.”
“I also welcome our guests in the Distinguished Visitors Gallery and welcome the Minister of State. I think the last time I met her was when I was doing the whistle-stop tour of Ireland for the Seanad election and I stayed, while in the north west, in Sligo Park Hotel. She came in and she was working and it was late at night. I was there passing through and she was there working. I got here anyway. That is probably a bigger achievement for me. She was already here at that stage. I thank her and welcome her here this evening. I am like many others, I think everybody who has spoken so far, on the committee. We have done our report on apprenticeships, we have put in hours and hours of deliberations and we have a list of recommendations in our draft report.”
“CAP money is usually ring-fenced on farms for non-derogation expenses, for the want of a better phrase, so it is important that the CAP is maintained to at least the current level, going forward. We have had this conversation before. I will really put the hammer on the Minister and say, allowing for inflation, it needs to be increased. At the end of the day, based on the 22% reduction that is currently being talked about, we would probably call the status quo a good result but, hopefully, we will aim higher and possibly even deliver a higher amount.”
“I will also put the hammer on the Minister when it comes to the CAP negotiations. Farmers have to spend a lot of money to keep up the pace in regard to the derogation. I have just mentioned slurry. There is no additional income or profit from an investment like additional slurry storage. Farmers still have the day-to-day expenses and the upkeep of all the other aspects of their farm, which is sometimes neglected in order to spend the money wisely and meet the targets, for example, of maintaining the quality of water or the conditions they are obliged to meet under the derogation. We cannot keep spending all of the money on one section of the farm or in one direction or emphasis. We do not want to see other areas of the day-to-day running of the farm being neglected.”
“When you do a test, you analyse the results and take action based on the results. On this occasion, we are doing a test or an assessment and we have given the commitment we are going to shelve the results until they are all done, which will take the best part of three years. Will we have time to take the necessary actions? I will just ask the Minister that question. Again, I compliment the Government, the Minister and the Minister, Deputy Browne, on the introduction of a planning exemption for slurry. As my colleague, Senator Lynch, says, slurry storage is not a luxury. We need to continue funding TAMS but it is very welcome that if a farmer needs to build extra slurry storage to maintain the water quality in the area, he will not have to go through the rigours of making a planning application.”
“While we have the full three years and hopefully all the good actions that were taken will be showing results by then and we will not have a lag time issue, the Minister might clarify a point. I have an issue with the fact that the appropriate assessments are going to start and have to start immediately. They are then going to be shelved until the end and nobody will know what the results were in any one individual area. If some of them are negative, we will not know if extra actions need to take place in that area and then we will get all the results of all these appropriate assessments together, at the end, when we are approaching renewal in 2028 or whatever. Could there be an issue there? I am not being critical; I am asking a question because I have a genuine concern about it.”
“One good example has been mentioned, that is, one of the rivers that has been mentioned for the reduction of chemical fertiliser is the Slaney. We have a very good River Slaney project, which was led by Teagasc. Tírlán was a big driver in that. It is aware of the fact that it has skin in this game and it is contributing, but maybe it could contribute a little bit more going forward. I put out that call to the industry. It would be disingenuous not to say I stood up here on numerous previous occasions and preached about lag time. We are doing the work but we are not being given time for the work to be seen to have the desired effect before there is an assessment or a mid-term review or whatever. This time, we have three years as such. I have a question on that.”
“There are 54,000 jobs in Ireland directly related to our dairy industry and multiples of thousands of those jobs would have been lost if we did not secure the derogation. There have been different surveys and analyses done on this and it is estimated that the milk cheques that will be going out would be reduced by €555 million. That would be some loss to rural Ireland. That is a loss of €23,000 on average per farm and that is a family farm we must remember. The majority of Irish family farms would not survive farming below 170 kg N/ha because of the nature and size of our farms, the division of our lands and the geography of the country. This enhances that model that Irish agriculture was built on. While I thank the industry, the industry could give even more going forward.”
“If there were no appropriate assessments, if the Minister did not do what he had to do to abide by the habitats directive, there would be no derogation and we need that derogation. I thank him for the role he played. I thank the farmers who, through all their work up to the present point in time, have made sure that the EU could have the confidence to give us a derogation. Moreover, I know they will not be found wanting going forward in hopefully securing a further derogation in three years’ time, but at least in the meantime, ensuring our water quality improves. I thank the industry. The industry is often left out of this equation. There are 7,000 farmers in derogation and a lot of people out there think this whole thing is about those 7,000 farmers. They are basically the foundation of what is a massive industry.”
“I welcome the Minister. I have eight minutes. I do not need eight minutes but if it had been a year ago, eight hours would not have been enough. As the Minister quite rightly said, the talking is done. He has delivered, and now it is about action and what needs to be done over the next three years. I acknowledge the role the Minister played in it, and thank and congratulate him on achieving the derogation. It was a fluid situation. I am a veteran of two agriculture committees and we got a bit of a slating the last time about the introduction of cow banding and a mid-term review. If there was no cow banding or no mid-term review, there would be no derogation. There is a bit of the same out there about having to do all these appropriate assessments, etc.”
“In some cases it is vital that we would prioritise some of the work on some houses, in the interest of the health and well-being of the residents if they have certain illnesses or ailments affected by damp, cold and so on. Maybe we should be looking at that. Without pre-empting the debate, I ask the Cathaoirleach to ask the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, to come here to go through his new proposals and to discuss the current performance and waiting times of the SEAI in those grants and retrofitting processes.”
“I would like the Minister to come in to go through his new proposals with us, but also to include in that discussion the waiting times within the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, when somebody decides to avail of these grants. I have been working for somebody, a very needy case, and I am still hearing back that the approximate wait time for a survey is 14 months and for the works to be completed is 24 to 26 months. The BER inspection can take two to three months after the completion of work. That is nigh on three years from beginning to end. While I accept and appreciate the reasoning behind it, decisions are based on the BER rating of the house as opposed to the health of the resident.”
“I welcome the announcement yesterday by my party colleague the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, on the improvements to the retrofitting schemes, in particular the decoupling of doors and windows. This makes it so much easier for somebody to get Government aid to upgrade their doors and windows, to upgrade their entire house or to do a deep retrofit on a phased basis. There was no support for doors or windows before unless they were doing the overall package, which was not feasible for everybody to do. This is a very welcome and successful scheme. It is possibly a victim of its own success.”
“It is a similar process for the livestock rate. It is not a mad proposal that somebody would look at the potential of coupling them going forward. It would avoid all anomalies going forward if the flat rate was equivalent to the livestock rate. It would need some research and work but when the macroeconomic data is being accumulated it should be done simultaneously. If equalisation needs to be introduced to one or the other to have them on a par, that might also be possible. I know the Minister would not have been able to accept the recommendation. I thank him for his interaction and I apologise to the Leas-Chathaoirleach for the confusion caused by the fact I did not discuss the recommendation on Committee Stage. I hope the Minister can give me a positive response and I thank him again for his engagement.”
“However, it is only when things go below that we hear from the lobbyists. The Irish Co-operative Organisation Society, ICOS, has been on to me. It represents 150,000 members and 130 co-operatives and marts which employ 12,000 people in the sector. The fear is that farmers will now will go directly to the abattoirs. We all know how important the local mart is to the local economy of the area where it is based. The amendment was that the flat rate and the livestock rate would be brought together and equalised going forward. It is not something that could be done in this Bill but maybe it is something we could start out from today to achieve over a period of time. As the Tánaiste is aware, the flat rate is decided based on the macroeconomic data from the CSO and a decision is made by the Minister for Finance with Revenue.”
“It is about the issue with flat rate VAT and selling livestock in a mart. I am not going to try to explain to the Tánaiste how the flat rate VAT compensation works for farmers who are not registered. It is a complicated system, but in the budget it was reduced from 5.1% to 4.5%. There is also, however, a livestock rate of 4.8% which did not change. Now that the 4.5% rate is obviously lower than the 4.8% rate, if I as a non-registered farmer go to the mart and sell that animal for €1,000, forgetting about commissions and all that, I will bring home €997.14 as a flat rate, whereas if I sell that animal to the abattoir, the factory, and get the same €1,000 price, I will bring home the €1,000. That is because the 4.5% rate is now lower than the 4.8% rate. When it was 5.1%, I would have brought home more than €1,000.”
“There was a bit of a misunderstanding. It was down to the goodwill of the Tánaiste, and I thank him for his engagement. We spoke here the last day and he had to leave the Chamber. He told me he would deal with it today on Report Stage. With that in mind, rather than actually speaking on the amendment then, I said I was withdrawing it with a view to bringing it back today. Apparently, if it is not discussed, it cannot be brought back, but I appreciate the fact we have been given an opportunity to speak on it today. It is an amendment that the Tánaiste probably could not or would not want to accept anyway and it is something that probably cannot be changed in the Finance Bill. However, it is an anomaly and I want to highlight it. It is something we might get the wheels in motion on to find a workable solution for the people whom it affects.”
“While there is always a need for upskilling and training in the development of technology, etc., there is not the same need for skilling and training of people who are out there looking for a job or have to change job because circumstances have changed in their old job. That is the time, in my opinion, to make the capital investment so that if and when - I would hope never but it is all cyclical - the next time there is a need to reskill people for changes of career options because of a downturn, we will have the equipment and we will have the facilities. Now is the time to do that for the future.”
“For our own information, if these amendments are made, will that operate similarly going forward? Does the Minister have to go the Minister for Finance or does it give the Department that little bit more leeway in drawing down the money without having to ask permission on every occasion? As I say, we have money at present and we have full employment so now is the time to make the capital investment. I take what Senator Tully said about the drop in training from 2014. In 2014, we were coming out of a recession. We were training people, upskilling them and trying to get them different jobs, and moving them from a job they had previously into new positions. We are lucky enough at present to be at full employment. We need people to come into the country to fulfil a lot of jobs.”
“I remember being down in Senator Kennelly's country years ago when I was on the Education and Training Boards Ireland, ETBI, in Tralee, where they were working on wind turbines, but they were working outside. I know wind turbines are outside, but for training purposes, you are not talking here about building Portakabins. You are talking about building big buildings to facilitate some of these machines. The expenditure on the machine is one thing, but you need the land and you need the housing facility. It is vitally important. When the need is there and the money is sitting almost dormant, it is a no-brainer. In his opening statement, the Minister explained how it works at present where the Minister for Finance controls the account and the Minister present is in control of where it is spent.”
“I would not like to think that Limerick would become top heavy in that particular institute in any future spending. We will differ on that one and we will fight our own parochial arguments on it. As the Minister will be aware, I would be from a practical background. The examples I will give the Minister are where I see it is really necessary. While I hear what Senator Tully is saying about buying land, etc., I will use the example I have used on numerous occasions when we were dealing with apprenticeships in the higher education committee, and that is 3D printing. 3D printing and modular homes are the future of house building. These are massive machines and equipment and you do not train on them.”
“That was their one big ask, that we could try and get facilities up to the required standard for today. As I say, I and Limerick's Senator Ryan have worked well together. I have, however, to call the Senator to task here this morning on one issue. While she was complimentary, and rightly so, on TUS, she did not mention the jewel in the crown, which is that formerly known as Athlone Institute of Technology.”
“I welcome the Minister. When I saw the comprehensive army he brought with him from Naas, I was glad that we are on the same team and that I was not going to take him to task. I warmly welcome the Bill. We have discussed it at length among ourselves, within our group and whatever. It is a no-brainer. When it was announced first that I and Senator Ryan were going to be the Fianna Fáil representatives on the higher education committee, we had numerous requests from stakeholders for meetings and we met them together. There was one common theme throughout and it was how facilities had fallen so far behind and had not kept up with the advances in technology. They were facilitating research and development on materials, ideas and equipment that was never dreamt of when the facilities that they were working from were built and developed.”
“If not, the important side, from our side of the conversation, has to be with the Minister for housing and local government in regard to what actions local governments and Irish Water are going to take to ensure farmers are not hung out to dry again in three years.”
“That conditionality and those actions will be met and embraced by the farming community and implemented. If it was farming alone, I can guarantee the Minister our water quality would be far better, greater and higher than it is. We all know the problems with Irish Water and local authorities so we need an action plan from that side of the house to improve our water quality or again, the farmers will be left on a cliff edge in three years with the potential of not knowing whether their livelihoods are going to be maintained or whether this derogation will be extended again in three years if water quality is not where it should be. It will not, ultimately, be their fault if it is not. We need to have that debate and if the Leader can bring in the two Ministers, so be it.”
“I welcome the decision of the European nitrates committee yesterday to pass the extension of the nitrates derogation for our agriculture sector. I ask the Leader to organise a debate in the new year on the nitrates derogation, specifically in respect of water quality. I asked for two Ministers to come here before and I do not want to make a habit of it. I will let the Leader make the call but I think it is important that it would be the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage who would take that debate specifically on water quality and the role of local authorities and Irish Water when it comes to improving our water quality. The stick is used continuously to beat and blame the farmer. There is additional conditionality with the extension to our nitrates derogation.”
“I move recommendation No. 3: In page 99, between lines 13 and 14, to insert the following: “(2) Section 46(1)(d) of the Principal Act is amended, with effect from 1 January 2026, by the substitution of “4.5 per cent” for “4.8 per cent”.”. I will withdraw this recommendation with a view to reintroducing it on Report Stage.”
“We have not, however, changed the legislation implemented for the purposes of the production of hydroelectricity in the 1930s. With that in mind, I commend the Bill, compliment my colleague Senator Rabbitte, who did the vast majority of the work on it, and hope the Bill cannot just pass today but work its way through the Houses and make a difference. We need some joined-up thinking when it comes to the management of the River Shannon. A range of different organisations and outfits are responsible in different ways for it and, between the cracks of all of them, nobody is ultimately responsible at the end of the day when the Shannon floods. We are then pumping billions of euro and an unbelievable amount of time into flood defences. In other words, we are firefighting as opposed to trying to eliminate the possibilities of the fire starting.”
“It is a completely changed landscape that is catching the rainwater and it is a completely changed volume of rainwater falling because of the climate change we all have to accept is causing such a difference to our climate and environment. In discussions with some older people, my father included, the Lord be good to him, a few years ago, one elderly gentleman asked when was the last time we had what we call a soft day. It seems there is a torrential downpour now or it is not raining at all. There is no such thing anymore as what was always known as a soft day with a bit of drizzly rain. Things have changed. The volume of water falling has changed. The basin we are catching the water in has changed. The amount of water and when it is falling has changed.”
“It is wintertime and most of the livestock in the sheds, but an unintended consequence of what happens when a field as far up as County Westmeath is flooded, let it be only overnight, is that the nitrates go back with the water when the levels subside. It is having unintended consequences at many levels. As I said, the legislation is from the 1930s. Let us imagine the Ireland of the 1930s and then the Ireland of today, with all the new infrastructure, housing, roads, concrete yards, etc., that have been built. In other words, these are water catchment and storm water releases that are feeding into the streams that flow into the tributaries of the River Shannon. It is half the country that is being affected by this.”
“As I said, I second the Bill. I accept and promote its bona fides. Common sense would tell us it is 2025 and we are talking about something from 1925. We are talking about legislation introduced in 1934, I think it was, and it needs to be reviewed if nothing else. It needs to be looked at with a microscope to see how it can improve what is happening on the Shannon. In my role as spokesperson on agriculture, I was actively involved with Senator Rabbitte and others in getting compensation in 2023 for the farmers who lost their fodder in the Shannon Callows. It is not just the Shannon Callows. Right back up our way today there are fields flooded.”
“A constituent and close neighbour of mine contacted me regarding the fact that when he went to reinsure his house, his insurance company was refusing to insure him because he had appeared on one of these famous CFRAM flood risk maps. I raised the issue here at the time on the Order of Business to seek a discussion with the Minister on it. As I said at the time and I will repeat again, if that man’s house ever floods, we will all need to be in a Noah’s Ark. Unfortunately, however, because he was inside a line on a map, a map that has been drawn based on the current status of the River Shannon, just to be sure to be sure, he was unable to get insurance for his house. This is how important the management of the River Shannon is, and not just to the people who live in its environment, on its banks or close to its estuary.”
“I second the proposed Bill. I compliment Senator Rabbitte who, as she very eloquently described, lives so close to the River Shannon herself. Not taking from her explanations, I lived in Kilbeggan, which is a long way from the River Shannon, but I am on the banks of one of its tributary rivers. The Inny, the Suck and the Brosna are the three main tributaries of the River Shannon. I live very close to the River Brosna and what happens on the Shannon affects us that far up. The Minister of State will be well aware of the different attempts made to alleviate and handle the flooding of the River Shannon. One of the biggest moves at Government level was the introduction of the catchment flood risk assessment and management, CFRAM, programme and the CFRAM flood risk maps that were drawn and, I think, are updated every six years.”
“That Revenue could make it as easy as possible to facilitate them in those circumstances. The livestock VAT rate of 4.8% has to become equal to the 4.5% flat-rate VAT, because that is a serious anomaly.”
“It is an anomaly that will cost a lot of money when it comes to accounting for those farmers who have to register. Some of them might not even reach the threshold of expenditure to register for VAT but by virtue of the fact that the poultry part of their enterprise now has to be registered, they cannot work under the flat rate and they are caught in that situation. They are the two anomalies relating to the flat-rate VAT.”
“I am not reneging on that because I agreed with him at the time. There were directives from the Commission on the back of a whistleblower, but I will not go into the whole story. There is an anomaly in that it is reduced in a situation where farmers do not exclusively have poultry but have a mixed farm. They could have a poultry section but also do beef, dairy, sheep, tillage or whatever. Now it is becoming a very onerous task for them to return their accounts at the end of the year without having to register the entire enterprise. That was never the ambition of the change. They need to register the poultry sector but it was envisaged that they would have been able to accept or work under the flat-rate VAT for the other sections. It is an unintended consequence.”
“This is going to put serious pressure on the marts of Ireland. They employ a lot of people in rural areas. Previously, farmers had the opportunity to shop around – if that is the correct term to use when you are selling. They had the option of telling the man in the factory they would go to the mart or vice versa . If they are going to take a hit of even 0.03%, it adds up over the entirety of the stock. It is an anomaly and it must be looked at before the Finance Bill is signed, sealed and delivered over the line. The second point also relates to the flat-rate VAT for farmers. It relates to the poultry sector. The previous Minister, Paschal Donohoe, gave us very good briefings as to why the poultry sector was taken out of the flat-rate VAT and would have to register. I respect the bona fides in that regard.”
“I thank Senator Casey for allowing me to share time with him. I want to raise two points with the Minister of State. In fact, it is one issue that has two anomalies on the back of the budget. I refer to the changes to the flat-rate VAT for farmers. I will not get into trying to explain the flat-rate VAT. It is a figure agreed between the Minister and Revenue based on macroeconomic data from the CSO. It changes and is reviewed. In the budget it was reduced from 5.1% to 4.5%. The anomaly is that there is also a flat rate for livestock of 4.8%, and it did not change. In basic terms, using €1,000 as the figure, if you now sell an animal in the mart for that amount, you will bring home €997.14 or 0.03% less than if the animal was sold to an abattoir or factory where the person would get €1,000.”
“It is also about studying and sharing, with students from Ireland going there and students from Ukraine coming here. We have to think positively about the present and the future. I wish them every success in the coming days. Peace is important. We all cherish and want peace, but not at any price. President Zelenskyy has a tough battle ahead to get what Ukrainians will consider a good deal for peace. I wish him every success. As I say, we will not leave his good lady, Olena, out of the equation.”
“I take this opportunity to say we should not forget the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, who went about her own business today. They say that behind every successful man there is a very strong and successful woman. The First Lady had meetings today on the side as well. That is what I like to see about working towards the future. She met with our colleague, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy James Lawless, and they signed a memorandum of understanding between UCC and University College Galway and the Global Coalition of Ukrainian Studies. UCD also signed a letter of intent at that meeting. If nothing else, that will create possibilities for the future. It is about education and, hopefully, about young people getting back to normal.”