Written Answers Nos. 464-478
464. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Justice the number of additional Garda cars and vans allocated to the Donegal Garda division in 2022 and to date in 2023; the number of Garda cars and vans withdrawn from this division during same period, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21708/23]
View answerThe Government is committed to ensuring An Garda Síochána has the resources it needs to deliver a modern, fit-for-purpose, policing service. Budget 2023 provides funding of €2.14 billion for An Garda Síochána, of which €10m has been allocated for investment in the Garda fleet.
As the Deputy will be aware, under the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended), the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the administration and management of An Garda Síochána, including the purchase, allocation, and effective and efficient use of Garda vehicles. As Minister, I have no role in such matters.
I am however assured that Garda management keeps the distribution of resources under continual review in the context of crime trends and policing priorities, to ensure their optimum use.
The table below, which was provided to me by the Garda authorities, sets out the number of cars and vans allocated to and removed from the Garda Fleet in Donegal Division in 2022 and in 2023 up to 30 April 2023, the latest date for which figures are available.
|
Donegal Division |
Cars Allocated |
Vans Allocated |
Cars Removed |
Vans Removed |
|
2023 up to 30 April |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
2022 |
3 |
3 |
5 |
0 |
I am also advised by the Garda authorities that at 30 April 2023 there were 3,392 vehicles attached to the Garda fleet. This represents an increase of over 2% since end December 2022 when there were 3,312 vehicles attached to the Garda fleet. I am informed that as of the same date there were 80 vehicles assigned to Donegal Division.
The Deputy may also wish to be aware that An Garda Síochána publish information on Garda fleet, including a Divisional/District monthly breakdown, on their website at:
www.garda.ie/en/about-us/our-departments/finance-services/finance-fleet-management.html
465. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Justice the amount of revenue owed to An Garda Síochána as of 2 May 2023 in relation to non public duty policing costs from events held in 2022. [21709/23]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware, under Section 30 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended), the Garda Commissioner may provide and charge for police services, including for events on private property or in areas open to the public.
Examples of the types of events for which police services may be provided under this section include sports fixtures, concerts, festivals and exhibitions, meetings and conferences, the making of films and television programme and appearances of person/s likely to attract large numbers of persons, or escort for certain persons or property while in transit.
To be of assistance I sought the information requested by the Deputy from An Garda Síochána and have been advised that the current sum on record as owed to An Garda Síochána relating to such services for 2022 is just over €1.4 million.
I am also advised that invoices and reminders are issued on a regular basis for all outstanding sums.
466. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Justice the number of Garda armed support unit vehicles withdrawn from the fleet in 2021, 2022 and to date in 2023, in tabular form. [21710/23]
View answerI am informed by the Garda authorities that for operational security reasons they are unable to disclose details of vehicles assigned to and removed from the Garda Armed Support Unit. Therefore I am unable to provide the information sought by the Deputy.
As the Deputy will be aware, under the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended), the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the administration and management of An Garda Síochána, including the purchase, allocation, and effective and efficient use of Garda vehicles. As Minister, I have no role in such matters.
467. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Justice the ages of each horsebox vehicle currently within the Garda mounted unit, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21711/23]
View answerI have contacted An Garda Síochána for the information requested by the Deputy, regretfully this information was not available in time. I will write to the Deputy once the information is to hand.
468. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Justice the procedure to be followed by a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21847/23]
View answerThe person referred to by the Deputy submitted an application to renew their permission to remain in the State on the 26 April, 2023.
Processing of this application is ongoing at present. As each application is examined under its own merits, I am unable to give an exact time-frame for completion. However, the person referred to can be assured that there will be no avoidable delay in finalising their application and they will be contacted in writing as soon as a decision has been reached.
Queries in relation to the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to my Department by e-mail using the Oireachtas Mail facility (inisoireachtasmail@justice.ie), which has been specifically established for this purpose. This service enables up to date information on such cases to be obtained without the need to seek information by way of the Parliamentary Questions process. The Deputy may consider using the e-mail service except in cases where the response is, in the Deputy’s view, inadequate or too long awaited.
469. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the person or body that will be monitoring the footage from CCTV cameras installed at horse racing courses to prevent doping; if the footage will be reviewed daily or just when an incident occurs; how long will footage be stored for; how it will be stored; by whom the footage will be stored; and if he will request a statement from the IHRB Chief Executive Officer in relation to this. [21047/23]
View answerSince 2018, the Irish Horse Racing Regulatory Board ( IHRB) is the regulatory body for all horseracing in Ireland. The IHRB is a company limited by guarantee set up by the Turf Club and the Irish National Hunt Steeplechase Committee for the regulatory and licensing functions for Irish horseracing.
The role of the IHRB is provided for under the Horse Racing Ireland Act 2016 and subsequent Statutory Instruments.
The IHRB has informed my Department that the CCTV installation project at 25 racecourses, which commenced with a public procurement process in late 2021 is now live and operational.
The IHRB has further informed my Department that on days when a race fixture is taking place at a racecourse, the feed from the CCTV system will be monitored onsite throughout the day by security officers employed by the body. The footage will be reviewed subsequently in the IHRB office if matters arise which require review or investigation. The footage which is recorded on race days is retained on a secure digital video recorder which is kept at the IHRB office. Footage from non-race days is recorded on a separate secure server located at the racecourse; only racecourse personnel will have access to this server. The race day footage will be stored on the IHRB system for six months whereas non-race day footage is retained at the racecourse for 30 days.
470. Deputy Ciarán Cannon asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if officials from his Department are using an application (details supplied) to conduct business; if his Department has had official meetings regarding the use of the application by officials; if his Department has assessed the risk of using the application by Department officials and the input of Government-related data into the application; if his Department is using or is considering using other forms of artificial intelligence; if his Department is considering banning the use of the application by Department officials; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21088/23]
View answerMy Department has not used ChatGPT to conduct business and there have been no official meetings held regarding the use of this application. When ChatGPT was initially released, the tool was briefly explored for answering technical or software related questions. It was determined that the tool was of little benefit and was not subsequently used. No data or information was uploaded or shared with the platform. My Department takes a risk-based approach to the installation of any application used in the Department, and all applications must be used in line with Department policies and in line with advice provided by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). Artificial Intelligence is used for the following use cases within my Department, however all use cases are subject to human review, data protection and governance measures:
- Predicting the likelihood of TB outbreaks.
- Image Analysis of crop claimed under CAP schemes.
- Image analysis for identifying species susceptible to H5N1 (Bird flu).
- Customer Segmentation analysis for developing Agri-Food policies.
- Analysis for identifying risk factors for Microbial Food Safety.
- Smart Text analysis to prevent and contain data breaches.
In addition, the Area Monitoring System (AMS) within my Department uses Machine Learning, Neural Networks and Deep Learning to process Sentinel Satellite data as required by EU regulations.
471. Deputy Marc Ó Cathasaigh asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 1271, 1272 and 1273 of 8 November 2022, the timeline to commence, and the proposed delivery date, of the review of the Environmental Impact Assessment (Agriculture) (EIA) Regulations in relation to the removal of hedgerows, given the indication that a review would commence shortly, as outlined in the reply and as outlined most recently in Parliamentary Question No. 102 of 20 April 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21127/23]
View answerAs part of the Programme for Government, my Department has committed to conducting a full review of the EIA (Agriculture) Regulations.
I anticipate that this review will begin very shortly. A Press Release will issue when the review formally begins and the Deputy will also be notified directly.
472. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the action his Department is taking to remedy the situation in which a person who has forestry land and the Forestry Service has refused to grant them a forest road licence in circumstances (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21134/23]
View answerIn the case provided, the application for a road licence has not been refused by my Department. However, a Further Information Request (FIR) has been issued by my Department to the applicants, requesting information on alternative access to their forest holding in the interest of water quality. Having considered the proposed new forest access route and the requirement to provide crossing points at two streams within the catchment of a public water supply and sensitive salmon spawning catchment, the applicants were requested to investigate alternative access routes from neighbouring forest lands. The application is being held open to afford the applicant sufficient time to investigate alternative routes, that may have less of an environmental risk associated.
If the applicant wishes to discuss the issues directly with my Department staff with a view to reaching a solution on the ground to safely harvest and remove the timber in an environmentally responsible manner, my staff would be open to such a discussion.
473. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the measures his Department is taking to assist forestry owners who now find themselves in the position where they have been granted a felling licence but are having issues being granted a forest road licence as a result of changes to environmental policies, in particular with regard to watercourses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21135/23]
View answer474. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the action his Department is taking to ensure that forestry owners who have made financial investments in forestry will not encounter issues in future with regards to the issuing of forestry roads licences, in view of changes to environmental policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21136/23]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 473 and 474 together.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has provided guidance documents on the construction of forest roads. These include the Forest Road Manual (2006), Technical Standard for Design of Forest Entrances onto Public road (2019), Forest Entrance – Requirement for Mandatory Consultation (2020) and Forest Road Entrance Checklist (2022).
Additional engineers have been recruited by my Department to assist in ensuring a streamlined process to allow forest road applications to be processed as quickly as possible through the system in accordance with the various environmental and safety standards. Additional training to the sector will be provided when the Forestry Programme is launched.
The Department issued 718 forest road licences (amounting to 290 kilometres of forest road) during 2022. This is well in excess of the number of applications received and represents the highest number of road licences issued by the Department in a single year.
All licences applications whether felling or forest road applications must be considered in relation to the surrounding environment and will go through a process to ensure compliance with a range of environmental legislation that is in place to safeguard water quality, habitats and species.
A road application will go through an environmental protection process in instances where a felling licence has already issued for that area. This is because the road construction project is a different project to the felling. It is open to the applicant to apply for both projects at the same time.
475. Deputy John McGuinness asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason the young farmer payment was discontinued in the case of a person (details supplied); and if he will arrange to have them included in the scheme. [21169/23]
View answerEU regulations governing the Direct Payment Schemes and Rural Development measures require my Department to conduct inspections to ensure compliance with scheme eligibility.
The person named applied for the Young Farmer Scheme and was selected for inspection to check for compliance with the scheme.
The inspection was carried out on 16th March 2023 and the inspection findings, detailing the inspection outcome were communicated to the applicant on 4th May 2023. An element of the inspection is verification that the applicant is in managerial and financial control of the holding. The applicant failed to demonstrate that she is in managerial and financial control.
This correspondence afforded the applicant the opportunity to comment on the inspection findings and/or bring any additional relevant information to the attention of my Department before the final inspection outcome is processed.
Any comments received from the applicant will be considered by my Department in making the final decision on eligibility under the Young Farmer Scheme.
476. Deputy Michael McNamara asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans for legislative change in light of recent tree felling at Ryevale House and the destruction of trees in hedgerows in Clare, in particular by, and the behest of, Clare County Council, since the commencement of the Forestry Act 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21175/23]
View answer489. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the Forestry Service granted a licence to fell trees at a location (details supplied); if a licence was not required, if he will provide the date on which his Department was notified that felling was to take place and the date on which it was determined and communicated to the owners that the trees in question were exempted or not. [21329/23]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 476 and 489 together.
Tree Felling, in all cases, is the responsibility of the land owner or the person felling the tree to ensure that they are acting within the law. None of the exemptions granted under Section 19 of the Forestry Act 2014 serve to remove any restriction on the felling or removal of trees under (a) the Planning and Development Acts 2000 to 2013, (b) the Wildlife Acts 1976 to 2000, and in particular section 40 of the Wildlife Act 1976, or (c) any other enactment.
Some common scenarios where trees can be felled without the need to submit a tree felling licence application under Section 19 of the Forestry Act 2014, include; where a tree lies within 30 metres of a building (other than a wall or temporary structure), but excluding any building built after the trees were planted, a tree outside a forest—within 10 metres of a public road and which, in the opinion of the owner (being an opinion formed on reasonable grounds), is dangerous to persons using the public road on account of its age or condition, trees outside a forest— the removal of which is specified in a grant of planning permission and a tree outside a forest— in a hedgerow and felled for the purposes of its trimming, provided that the tree does not exceed 20 centimetres in diameter when measured 1.3 metres from the ground. I have no plans to amend the Forestry Act at this stage as regards tree felling.
A report of an alleged illegal felling at Ryevale House, Leixlip, Co. Kildare was received by my Department on 1st February 2023. No felling licence application was submitted for the site. Following a review of the geographical information received it was determined that the area falls within an urban area for the purposes of Section 19 of the Forestry Act, 2014 and is therefore exempt from the requirement for a tree felling licence. The complainant’s AIF (Alleged illegal felling) report also outlined that the trees were within 30m of a building. The felled trees were therefore also exempt from the requirement for a tree felling licence under Section 19 (1) (b) of the Forestry Act, 2014.
477. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will list all reviews of Acts carried out by his Department in line with the provisions of the Act in question from 2000 to date; if a summary will be provided of any substantive amendments of the Act in question that occurred on foot of each review and the amending legislation, if any, in each case; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21177/23]
View answerThe Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has responsibility for approximately20 pieces of primary legislation passed by the Oireachtas in the relevant time period. While legislation under the remit of my department is constantly kept under review as a general policy, no statutory provision was included in any of the legislation in question requiring that a statutory review of the relevant Act be undertaken. Consequently, there have been no statutory reviews of my Department's legislation with the result that no amendments have occurred on foot of such reviews.
478. Deputy Michael McNamara asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of hectares of forestry as defined in the Forestry Act 2014 that was logged in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, respectively; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21220/23]
View answerThe Central Statistics Office (CSO) carry out a statutory Roundwood Removals Survey conducted under the Statistics (Roundwood Removals Survey) Order 2021 (S.I. No. 112 of 2021). This survey collects information from Forest owners, forestry consultants, management companies, harvesting contractors and sawmills. Information for the years 2015 to 2021 is displayed in the table below. Information for 2022 is not yet available. The survey results are published on the CSO website and are available to download.
|
Year |
'000 tonnes |
'000 cubic metres |
|
2015 |
3,000 |
3,312 |
|
2016 |
3,132 |
3,445 |
|
2017 |
3,358 |
3,698 |
|
2018 |
3,482 |
3,834 |
|
2019 |
3,629 |
3,987 |
|
2020 |
3,442 |
3,891 |
|
2021 |
3,825 |
4,333 |
See www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-fwr/forestwoodremovals2021/.
