Brian Stanley
Laois · Independent · Ireland
“We are going through an epidemic of domestic abuse and violence. In 2025, the Garda had over 67,000 calls in relation to domestic abuse. Seven women were murdered last year, and in many of those cases, it was by a family member, a partner or somebody known closely to the victim.”
“Those fundamentals cannot be ignored. Are supporters of partition really saying that we can continue on this small island with 14 different departments in each jurisdiction working back to back, often in competition with each other? Are they saying that having Twenty-six Counties in the EU and Six Counties out of it makes economic sense?”
“Those who still argue for partition ignore the fact that in a reunified 32-county state, the pension liabilities of those workers in the Six Counties who accrued pension entitlements by paying into the British national insurance system and the British exchequer or employment pensions would receive that portion of their pension liability.”
“Unfortunately, I do not get any sense of urgency from the Minister of State that we are going to have laws introduced in September or October, and that is the crucial issue. Yes, we have rules now, and she listed them out in relation to the signs. However, they are being ignored.”
“The cost is €2.6 billion for the diplomatic mission alone. There is also MI6 and the massive military machine and capacity, including the army, the navy and the Royal Air Force. I saw a figure of €60.2 billion for 2025 and 2026. That amount is due to rise sharply to meet its increased military capabilities.”
“The issue I am raising with the Minister of State is the increase in the number of injuries, including those involving young children, relating to e-scooters and e-bikes. Ten have been killed.”
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“I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. The cost of private health insurance puts a huge burden on people. In particular, it puts a huge burden on pensioners, who feel they have no choice. People feel compelled to take up private health insurance because of the delays and inefficiencies in our public system. Some progress has been made in some areas. Some of the screening projects being run are very effective. However, we must do a lot better. It is another tax on people. That is the reality of it. I have dealt with pensioners who are on €280 a week who are paying €40 to €60 for private health insurance. We are seeing several hikes in the one year. There is not one increase but a number of them. Some of them are double-digit increases. We have a market model.”
“I do not need to tell the Minister of State that the demand is there for it. A lot of families are coming to me about it. I was not aware that you could come in on the back of a written question at oral question time.”
“The first thing I want to say in reply to the Minister of State is that €31 million is the cost that I have been given for the new 50-bed unit that is being developed there. In response to a previous parliamentary question, the Minister said that "scale and scope of phasing of these works is currently being reviewed with service colleagues, and once completed, the specific scope for Phase 2", which is the next wing of the 50, "will be determined." That is a change of from the original plan of three phases. I am trying to be practical about this. I know money cannot be pulled out of the sky but we have 25 beds there out of the existing 50. The first thing is to keep them there. The second thing is to move onto phase 2 for the second 50 beds because we need them. There is a growing elderly population.”
“The Minister of State knows the situation he dealt with personally with regard to the residence. I thank him for his work on that and on the private ones. We have lost Ballard Lodge, a private nursing which closed down and which was a good facility. We need extra capacity in the county. I plead with the Ministers of State and the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, to do everything they can to try to ensure that they increase the capacity to 83.”
“I thank the Minister of State for his reply. There are 58 beds there at the moment. The important thing when the new wing is opened, which I welcome as it is a €31 million investment we have been long waiting for, is that we increase that bed capacity of 58 beds. The reality is that 25 of the existing beds are in a ward that was refurbished in recent years at huge expense. There are double-glazed windows and completely refitted en suite rooms. It would be outrageous were those 25 beds to be taken out of use. There is capacity here to get the hospital up to 83 beds. There are brilliant staff there. It is a very well run facility. As I said, they are totally refurbished rooms. A total of 25 beds could continue. There is a shortage of nursing home beds in the county.”
“At the weekend, the towns of Portarlington and Mountmellick were flooded again for the umpteenth time. There are flood relief schemes planned in both towns. These were decided on after the serious flooding in both towns in 2017, which was eight years ago. Work is ongoing, and Laois County Council is playing its part in trying to advance those schemes as quickly as possible. However, because of all the different hoops that these schemes have to go through, schemes are taking between 15 and 17 years. I think we can all agree that is too long. It is a ridiculous length of time. The Mountmellick scheme has gone to An Coimisiún Pleanála, which is welcome. Hopefully, it can make a decision soon. However, as things stand, the Mountmellick scheme will not be done until 2031 at the earliest. For the Portarlington scheme, we are looking at 2033.”
“The Minister of State is here, he has a role in terms of his Government brief on this and he takes an interest in it but this is shocking. This is really important legislation. We have been dancing around it all year. We have a few weeks left in this Chamber between now and Christmas. Let us do the right thing and pass this Bill.”
“That set in train a worldwide boycott of South African goods that brought to its knees the apartheid regime in South Africa, a regime that a lot of people thought could not be brought down. We must stop pussyfooting. We are a neutral State. Given the scale of suffering of the Palestinian people and the slaughter and genocide carried out by the terrorist state of Israel, we must act. We have an absolute moral and legal responsibility to do that. I remind the Minister of State of the election promises made by the Government parties. We are a neutral state. International law is very clear. We have a responsibility to act. We cannot have any more excuses. It has gone long past time. I appeal to the Minister of State and the Government to do the right thing. It is disappointing to see all the Government benches empty.”
“I do not care what religion anybody is. That has nothing to do with it. This is about right and wrong. This has been wrong from the beginning and we have to stand up for what is right. Israel's plan is to make the two-state solution unviable, and that is why we must stand firm on this. The EU's response - and I know the Minister of State has a special responsibility here - has been absolutely disgraceful. The EU-Israel trade agreement should have been halted a long time ago. We are not powerless here to take action. We may be a small enough State. We took the decision to recognise the State of Palestine in this Chamber about a decade ago, and since then several other states have done so. We set an example 40 years ago. In fact, the women in Dunnes Stores here in Dublin set the example when they refused to handle South African fruit.”
“Throughout all the genocide and terror of the past two years, it has continued the campaign of murder and intimidation of people in the West Bank. That continues. That is why this Bill is so important. We all know what the game plan of Israel is. It is to make sure that there cannot be a two-state solution, break up the West Bank in so many small pieces, make all the farms and businesses unviable and intimidate Palestinian communities out of their homes so as Israel can fully occupy their lands. Israel has bulldozed crops, farmsteads, businesses and homes right throughout the past two years while its campaign of slaughter in Gaza has continued, bullying families off their own land and replacing them with Yankees from Dixieland and North Carolina simply on the basis that they are Jewish. I do not care about anybody's religion.”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak on this. It is long past time we passed the occupied territories Bill. We have a moral and legal duty to do so. There can be no half measures. Even if we are being bullied or leaned on by the richest people in the USA, we still have to go ahead and do so. We passed sanctions against Russia, quite correctly, and we need to stop the pussyfooting on the occupied territories Bill - no half measures. There have been no half measures from the terrorist state of Israel in the past two years: hospitals, places of prayer and tents housing refugees who are fleeing; women, children and men slaughtered; ambulance crews bombed; and aerial bombardment on a scale I have never seen before. The State of Israel has used Palestinian boys and girls as target practice for its soldiers.”
“On disabled people, the Government needs to revisit the means test. The means test for carer's allowance has to go. We need to get more disabled people into the workforce.”
“We have very low participation rates. The abolition of the means test for the carer's allowance was promised and promised again. Guess what? It has not happened. It has been forgotten about. On the auto-enrolment section of the Bill, auto-enrolment needs to be revisited for those workers on less than €20,000. On PRSI contributions and the Social Insurance Fund, employers' PRSI needs to be revisited, particularly for high-paid workers. If companies can pay people €200,000, €300,000 or €400,000 a year, they can pay a bit more PRSI. On the budget, we have to do something by way of a cost-of-living package. I ask the Government to bring in a one-off measure, even at this point, to alleviate the worst excesses of the current price increases to help people over the winter period.”
“On the social welfare increases, those who were in poverty are now further in poverty because we are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis like I have never seen before. There are 190,000 children in immediate poverty. They are going to sink further into it. The small increase in the budget is not going to lift those vulnerable people out of poverty. There is no cost-of-living measures or one-offs. Last year, there was money for everything because there was an election but the election is over now so there was no need for it this year. That is cynical. It is bad for politics, but it is also bad for poverty and those people who are forced to live on low incomes. We need to start doing something about the low rates of participation of disabled people in the workforce. Again, we are in the bottom of the class in the EU.”
“With regard to the company that is running it, if this company is, as it appears to be, connected to the greater genocide effort by the terrorist State of Israel, that needs to be reviewed straight away. I wonder why the State could not operate or administer this scheme itself as it does with the State saving schemes. The Bill allows for a slight change to employers' PRSI. We have one of the lowest rates of employers' PRSI in Europe. The Social Insurance Fund is not going to be there to keep pensions going. I have mentioned one way of keeping it up but we need to increase the level of PRSI contribution from employers, particularly for high-paid workers, if the fund is to be sufficient in the coming years.”
“The level of payment provided under the basic State pension has to be maintained on the basis of the contributions made by people over a 40-year period. While people should be able to retire at the age set at the moment, we should provide a greater option for people to work until they are 70, if they so wish. There is a lot of talk about a pension time bomb and how we are going to head this off. There are a lot of people working who would like to wind down. When they reach 65, they may not want to work 40 hours a week or five days a week but they might want to work 30 or 20 hours a week. We should facilitate that. They would then make a contribution to society, pay taxes and be allowed to retire on a graduated basis.”
“This Bill keeps those who are on low pay and those who are compelled to live on social welfare in further poverty for another year. I will first deal with the auto-enrolment system, which leaves out those earning below €20,000. It may be the case that they will not accumulate a huge pension over their working life, but people earning below €20,000 are entitled to have the same rights as those who are earning €100,000. I fail to see why they have been excluded. They have been left behind. The worker puts in €3, the employer puts in €3 and the State puts in €1. It is a big omission to leave out low-paid and part-time workers, a lot of whom will be women. The other concern I have is the need to ensure auto-enrolment is not used in the coming years to reduce the State pension.”
“I raise the issue of the Fastway workers. There is a large section in the programme for Government regarding enterprise and employment. The Fastway workers have been caught in an awful mess and treated disgracefully. One of the main depots is in Portarlington. Hundreds of workers and contract drivers are affected. Some workers who are owed wages got no warning whatsoever and cannot apply for a job because they are not officially redundant yet. They had no notice or have no opportunity to sign on. They cannot sign on for social welfare for another three weeks. They have no income. Some self-employed contractors are owed payments going back six, seven or eight weeks. Some of these workers bought vans, bought a franchise - in other words, they bought an area for delivery - from Fastway. There are also undelivered parcels in the system.”
“I previously raised the case of a farmer who a few years ago was left lying in a farmyard in the Clonaslee area for two hours because there was no ambulance available in Portlaoise to be sent to assist him. The officials will give the Taoiseach answers and will blind him with the figures they have available, but he needs to look at the reality of what is happening. I am spelling out the reality in black and white. I am asking the Taoiseach to review this dynamic deployment. The Government needs to do it, invest in more ambulances and step up recruitment of staff.”
“The Taoiseach is correct about the investment, but we will not get the benefit of it because of the way the system is configured. The Taoiseach used the word "evidence". I will tell him what the evidence is. A county has no cover because the ambulance that is on call has to go to an emergency two or three counties away. That cannot be allowed to continue. That is the way Laois has been left on two nights each week. If a person is injured or is in a life-threatening situation only a mile or a half mile from the hospital, there is no ambulance to collect them. This is because the two ambulances that are there during the day have been sent somewhere else. I am not arguing for them to be kept within a strict limit, but a radius needs to imposed.”
“In a situation involving a life-threatening illness or injury, the target time for advanced paramedics to reach the scene is 18 minutes and 59 seconds. That is only happening 45% of the time. If you set a target that low, of course you will not meet it. It is ridiculous. Will the Government put an end to the madness of so-called dynamic deployment? Will it invest in more ambulances and increase the number of staff available? Will it step up recruitment immediately?”
“They not doing that now because some genius decided that they had benefit-in-kind because they had cars with all the signs on them that they might be using to do the shopping or something like that. As a result, these vehicles are left at the base and the extra cover that people were offering on a voluntary basis is no longer there. In addition to everything I have outlined, we have a staff shortage and retention problems because of staff burnout. The Irish Medical Times reported earlier this year that the critical shortage of advanced paramedics is endangering life. There are targets in this regard. I have them here. They were sent to me in the form of a reply to a parliamentary question I tabled recently.”
“Recently, a young person died less than a mile from the hospital. There is, as already noted, the one ambulance base in the county and no ambulance was available to pick up that child. Two ambulances were on call at the time but both were attending calls in other counties. We have less cover in the county than we had 15 years ago, despite the fact that the population has increased by over 40% and now stands at over 100,000. There is also a problem with the rapid-response vehicles in the county, namely the cars used by advanced paramedics. Again, there is less cover now. The drivers of those cars used to be allowed to bring them home. Regardless of whether they were on shift or not, if they were contacted, they would leave from their homes and rapidly deploy to the scene of an accident or emergency.”
“Sometimes they are turned back when they are within a couple of miles of their destination because a local ambulance has got there a minute or two quicker. A crew can do more than 600 km across a shift and only pick up one or two patients Recently in Laois, there was only one crew and one ambulance on call. When the crew clocked in, they were immediately sent to Wexford. Meanwhile, Laois was left without an ambulance. There is one ambulance station. On Monday and Tuesday nights, there is only one ambulance available. An ambulance can take up two hours to arrive at locations within the county - it might not even arrive at all - because of this. That is no fault of the staff. As stated, only one ambulance is on call on Monday and Tuesday nights. That ambulance can be sent to destinations three counties away, which has actually happened.”
“I wish to raise the many problems in the National Ambulance Service. Staff are doing their best but there are problems beyond their control. I will outline some of those problems. There are not enough staff or ambulances. We have approximately 1,500 staff. Scotland, which has a similar population, has more than double that number. We have 675 operational ambulances in the service. Scotland has more than double that number. There is a problem with so-called dynamic deployment, and I really want to push the Taoiseach on this. What dynamic deployment means is that ambulances can be sent anywhere. An ambulance based in Laois could be sent as far as Cork or Waterford. Ambulances are being sent that far.”
“Micheál Martin says the time is not right. The Deputy will get an opportunity, I will use my opportunity. Micheál Martin says the time is not now. Full reconciliation has to a precondition but that will mean it will never happen. Yes, we need to advance reconciliation and we should promote it. Of course we should. I have met people from the unionist community in the past, including some loyalists. We should reach out and meet people who were traditionally our opponents. Reconciliation is important and we must continue working with that but it cannot be a block to progress. Micheál Martin says the time is not right but the time to start this work is now. We need to move on with it.”
“We should not talk at them, like some parties do. We need to talk to them and listen to them. The new President, Uachtarán nua, will have a key role in this. I believe Catherine Connolly will be the best one to do that. We need to get a referendum going within this decade. We need to start the plans and get them advanced for Irish unity. If we fail to plan, we plan to fail.”
“We need to establish a citizens' assembly, civic forum, North-South forum or all-Ireland forum. We need to move on the voting rights for presidential elections and, I believe, Seanad elections for people in the North. We need to tease out the practicalities of that. We need to identify opportunities and start planning for a referendum. We need to promote the debate and while doing that we need to respect other people's identities. The identity of unionists needs to be respect. We need to assure unionists of fairness in a 32-county reunited Ireland. We need to assure them in relation to political representation in a new 32-county Dáil. As I asked earlier, should Stormont still be there? Perhaps it should be. That is a discussion that needs to happen. We need to talk to those who are not yet convinced, North and South.”
“The debate has changed in here. If I think back to when I came in here nearly 15 years ago, this debate would have been very different. I welcome that. Parties that would have been - I will not say lukewarm - maybe even stone-cold to the idea then are now able to discuss it. That is good and it shows progress. Most parties now see this as important. The North-South implementation bodies, as I said, need to be expanded and further progress needs to be made there. The development of a national health system is really important and will be key. People in the North have a health system. I have a niece who works in it. There are problems with it. There are problems with the one here. There are strengths in both health systems too. They need to be harnessed and we need to create a proper Irish national health system.”
“Military neutrality has to be upheld, and we need to be a strong voice in Europe. We can be critical sometimes of Europe. It does not mean we are anti-European. We need an Ireland that looks out internationally, helping the people of Gaza and other parts of the world where people are suffering. There are questions about whether an assembly should remain in the North. Those issues need to be discussed. Should Stormont still exist? Perhaps it should. Maybe that needs to be worked into this. How would all that function? Those matters need to be considered. Politically, in the North and the South, the ground is shifting. People in the North are more open to discussions about reunification, and that is within communities that were traditionally hostile to it. There is a growing demand within the nationalist community.”
“Most important of all is the North-South electricity interconnector. We cannot have it both ways, talking about a united Ireland and somehow obstructing or slowing down the interconnector between the North and South. That is critical if we want an all-Ireland energy system and energy market. That is long overdue and must happen as soon as possible. The North-South implementation bodies - Waterways Ireland, the food safety board, InterTradeIreland, An Foras Teanga, the EU programmes implementation body and the Irish loughs and lights commission - are functioning. New ones need to be created. That was provided for in the Good Friday Agreement. A reunited Ireland has to be a just and inclusive Ireland, a system based on social justice with proper public services, with workers' rights respected and disabled people included.”
“As we speak, there are more and more economic connections between North and South, and that is good. The North-South Ministerial Council is meeting again, which is positive. There is co-operation on several matters such as infrastructure, health, energy and, now, domestic violence, which is overdue. We need to expand all that into other areas. We need to give agriculture environmental protection because environmental damage does not recognise any borders. There is education and there are a whole range of other areas. The economic logic demands that. On infrastructure, there are the plans to advance the A5 and the Ulster Canal, and Narrow Water Bridge is under way. All of that needs to move ahead apace, but other critical infrastructure now needs to be progressed, including rail connections.”
“It created a multitude of trading and political problems. It exposed how ridiculous partition was. A hard border was just about avoided because of the joint efforts of the Opposition, the Government and a lot of other people in Europe and everywhere else who contributed to that and ensured we did not have a hard border. The Six Counties were retained in the EU Single Market - just about - for trade and movement of goods and services. That is welcome, but problems remain, including bureaucracy with trade, the two currencies, the two sets of standards, and British and EU revenue systems. We cannot get away from that. It does cause problems. Some positive progress has been made since the Good Friday Agreement. The development of the all-Ireland economy is happening.”
“The British Government's actions caused division and conflict and retarded the economic and political development of this island over the past 100 years. We are in a better place now but we recognise that Ireland is a small island. There are 7 million people in a relatively small country on the north-western edge of Europe. That is a fact. It does not make sense to have it divided, with two separate systems operating back to back, with separate currencies, revenue systems, taxation, energy systems, transport, agriculture, education and so on. None of this ever made political or economic sense and definitely does not now, particularly with the arrival of Brexit. That was the game-changer and opened a lot of people's eyes in the North who would be soft unionists - or maybe even hard unionists.”
“Connolly predicted "a carnival of reaction", and how correct he was. Two reactionary states is exactly what we got: one Orange state and one southern State that was a narrow, clerical State. The Good Friday Agreement provided for national reunification of the territory. It is time we stepped up a gear. Preparations need to begin, and winning support and planning for reunification need to be given a new importance, not just by the Government but by all of us. Partition failed. The North is a failed political entity. We have managed to circle a square for now and it trundles along, but it is not really a successful political entity. It is a failed military project on behalf of Britain - that failed as well - and a failed economic entity because it cannot survive on its own.”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak in this important debate. It has been 27 years since the Good Friday Agreement was endorsed, north and south, and over 100 years since partition. A lot of us at the time of the Good Friday Agreement, if we are being honest, were reluctant supporters of it. I will read out one line in it. "The Government [meaning the British Government] of Ireland Act 1920 is repealed; and this Act shall have effect notwithstanding any other previous enactment." That line in an annexe to the document was the thing that tilted it for me, the fact that Britain was prepared to relinquish its claim to the North if the majority of people, north and south, in a referendum decided on a united Ireland. That line was key. It has been over 100 years since partition.”
“-----and it is disgraceful. I will conclude on this. Every one of the past four Governments promised to do this. Who is putting the brakes on it? I have a Bill before the House, if the Tánaiste wants to support that-----”
“Many people are coming to the conclusion that this is deliberate in order to allow the large investors and large corporations to be able to put these in, particularly in the midlands, and then bring in perhaps weak guidelines after that. It is a case of bolting the door when the horse has gone. Meanwhile, and the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will attest to this, huge wind turbines are planned in south and north Laois and north Kilkenny, without any proper guidelines, never mind regulations. There are no community obligations-----”
“There is a commitment in the programme for Government to prioritise new wind farm guidelines. Wind is important and it is important we are able to utilise it as part of the solution to moving to cleaner energy. Last week I got a reply to a parliamentary question on it. The reply from the Minister stated that the 2006 guidelines remain in force and that the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is currently undertaking a focus review of the 2006 wind energy guidelines and engaging on all aspects of it with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. That is the same reply I got 12 years ago. This is not good enough. Why is there no movement on it? Is it deliberate?”
“I recognise that there has to be international trade but we have become overly reliant on it. When it has to be hauled from the far side of the world as well, it makes it more expensive. I call for realistic supports for the sector, trade recognition for genuine Irish produce and a massive expansion for food and animal feed security. This will help us reduce our carbon footprint and our carbon output per acre, but also provide cash for farmers. Farmers in Laois will step up to the plate. The ones I have met have stuck with the tillage sector. There are lean pickings from it. We must help those farmers to stay there. We must grow the numbers of farmers who are involved in tillage. I ask the Minister to look at some of these issues again and to give the sector due recognition.”
“I am not arguing for completely ring-fencing the country but we have to start looking at sustainability. We have to start getting back to some basics. We cannot be so heavily dependent on imports and therefore I ask the Minister not to give up on beet. It needs to be looked at again. It was a great cash crop and farmers welcomed the beet cheque that generally came in December and January and sometimes even in early February. We need realistic supports for the tillage sector, and I include the horticultural sector in that; we need trade recognition for genuine Irish produce; and we need to increase the volume of grain we are producing here and produce that can be used for animal feed, and to be able to certify that it is Irish. This is not about putting barbed wire around the country or anything like that.”
“It is really important. According to Teagasc, 19% of our potatoes is imported. That is a great cash crop. I understand how with weather patterns and changes that might be challenging but much of the country has good dry land that can be used for that. Then there are flour imports. During the latest big freeze, we almost ran out of bread. I think we had a four-day supply of flour in the country. Let us imagine that in a State that used to grow and produce all its own flour. There were flour mills including in Sallins and Portlaoise. There was great employment from the Odlum family in them but they are gone. We have left ourselves completely exposed to the volatility of global markets. We know what is going on globally; we know what America is up to and we know what is coming in with Mercosur and the difficulties that may cause.”
“I mentioned the benefits for farmers in terms of beet pulp and beet tops in the hungry month of January when they are trying to feed cattle and there is no grass and how it helps them with sustainability. On feedstuffs, the producers and mills are churning out stuff that may have as little as 5% Irish grain. Deputy Aird said he buys Irish grain, and it is good that he is buying it, but farmers are telling me that they cannot guarantee that it is. People in the mills, and those drawing the material to mills, tell me that it could be as low as 5%. I would point out to the Minister of State with responsibility for food, Deputy Grealish that this is really an issue. A lot of this is GM produce. It is not produced to the same high standards as the crops in this State. We have to have a level playing field when it comes to quality.”
“Whether we like it or not, we need to head off the huge fines coming at us. It would be unsustainable not to. A budget was passed here last week. If we do not do something about the fines for not reaching our climate targets, the cost will be astronomical. It will be a huge burden on farmers and taxpayers and that is who will have to pay it. There is nobody else to pay that. We need more supports there and we need to diversify. I ask the Minister not to give up on beet altogether. As he knows, different lobby groups and farmers were coming together and groups of people in the agribusiness sector were looking to get that back on the road again. He met some of them during recent Governments. We need to get it going again. The income from beet or sugar manufacturing alone will not do it; there must also be bioethanol and other byproducts.”
“Now what happens is that everything has to be bought in and that is creating a huge add-on cost for farmers. We have a climate emergency. Farmers who I meet want to play their part in that but we must allow them to do that. Teagasc has highlighted the unique position of tillage in reducing our carbon output. That is widely accepted. It is far less than dairy per acre, for example. Dairy farmers are doing well, as previous speakers have said, and that is all well and good but it is important that we recognise that the tillage sector has a huge role to play here. The fact that the sector has contracted so much in recent years has not helped us in reducing our emissions in a sustainable way. We also have to look at our international commitments and what we have signed up to.”
“I appeal to the Minister to look at this again because what people in the sector are telling me, and have been telling me for a long time, is that it needs something more like €100 per acre. That is €220 or €240 per hectare in supports. We need greater diversification and to broaden the range of crops, especially cover crops. The loss of the beet sector has been a huge loss and not only financial. It is a loss in a lot of other ways as well. When it finished there were 360 beet growers in County Laois. That is just one small county. Those farmers not only had a cash crop but they also had beet pulp in December, typically. In January they had beet tops to let cattle out on when there was no feed so they were able to reduce their feed costs, which was very important.”
“There is no doubt that they are under pressure. Milk is going well for now and so is beef but the margins are just not there for tillage. That is an honest statement to make; the business of tillage farming has to be economically viable. We need a huge shift in direction towards horticulture and tillage generally. The horticulture sector is nearly wiped out. We need to face up to that and deal with it. Any increase is welcome, and the Minister announced €50 million, but €20 million will go on ongoing schemes and commitments and the remaining €30 million is not that much of a change from last year. The Government was reported as promising €60 million - that is what IFA figures are saying – and that is certainly needed. The figure of a €100 per hectare subsidy is clearly inadequate.”
“The decline in numbers has been outlined. The number of full-time tillage farmers in the State is around 4,500. There has been a huge decline as the Minister knows. We need a seismic shift. This is not about doing something on the edges. This needs to be a national mission to get more land under tillage for economic, sustainability and environmental reasons, as well as to head off the huge fines that are coming at us from Europe in meeting our obligations. Unfortunately, tillage farmers are leaving in droves. The day of farmers having a few acres of beet and a few acres of grain side by side with cattle or dairy is gone and we need to address this. The viability of the sector is under pressure. I have met representatives of the tillage sector, as well as individual tillage farmers, in recent months who outlined this very strongly.”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important issue. I note that the two Ministers are here. Sometimes at debates here the senior Minister or the Minister of State do not attend but for most of this debate there were three Ministers present, comprising the Minister and two Ministers of State. While we might disagree on a lot of issues, it shows there is a seriousness about the changes that need to be made in this sector. The tillage sector needs an uplift. There was a saying “One more cow, one more sow, one more acre under the plough”, which some Members will be familiar with. However, we did not get the 1 acre under the plough and we are not getting it. There is an issue of sustainability and not just environmental but also economic sustainability. The simple fact is input costs have gone through the roof for the tillage sector.”
“It is a big problem for the Government, the Opposition, society, taxpayers and the building industry to remediate and sort out all of this, but we need to stop these things from happening. Spot checks of the material coming out of quarries are needed in the interests of quality control. Quarry owners should know that there could be a spot check at any time that would stop the operation of the quarry. I am not trying to obstruct building work because we need to speed up a lot of it. Rather, I wish to ensure that samples are taken and tested scientifically and, where there is evidence of defective material, the quarry ceases operation. I appeal to the Government to bring in a system whereby the local authority or some other competent authority carries out that work. That is all I am going to say on the matter.”