Paraic Brady
Agricultural Panel · Fine Gael · Ireland
“I wish to discuss a case that is ongoing all over social media where animals were euthanised on a farm in Roscommon and in County Clare last week. Forget about the rights and wrongs or who is right and who is wrong. The manner in which the animals were euthanised is where I see a problem.”
“It is probably the first time I can say all the work is done before we actually go home. With the weather, the turf is home, the hay is done the silage is made and the feet are up. We are surely going to enjoy the summer. I wish all the teams in the hurling and football the very best.”
“I welcome the Minister. I, too, support the countermotion. My colleagues have raised a number of issues but I would like to touch on the GAA's demographics report. It is about how we support those clubs in the countryside that are finding it hard to get players and the population to stay in that area.”
“He is working the land, but he also maybe has another job block-laying or whatever he is at locally. However, his family is reared there. He is buying his groceries in the local shop. He is spending all the money locally. He is probably doing a small bit of farming, drainage and whatever else. Everything is local.”
“I rise to address a concern that Councillor Michael Boyle raised yesterday in respect of Donegal. I compliment him on raising what will be a huge concern all over Ireland. It is that Irish Water has sent out notification that it intends to switch off water.”
“They can live without grass for a certain amount of time but we cannot switch water off for animals in this sort of weather. In this day and age, I cannot understand how Irish Water cannot provide a service. There are water-harvesting systems all over the world.”
The complete record
Every one of 212 lines we hold for Paraic Brady, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 1 of 5.
“It is probably the first time I can say all the work is done before we actually go home. With the weather, the turf is home, the hay is done the silage is made and the feet are up. We are surely going to enjoy the summer. I wish all the teams in the hurling and football the very best. I personally would like to see Mayo bring home the Sam Maguire, as would everybody else because I do feel their time has come - let us hope Mike Kennelly is not here – and let us hope it does go west. If it does go west, it will be full of people from all over Ireland. It has been long enough and maybe this is their time. Maybe the bad luck is gone after all.”
“I wish to discuss a case that is ongoing all over social media where animals were euthanised on a farm in Roscommon and in County Clare last week. Forget about the rights and wrongs or who is right and who is wrong. The manner in which the animals were euthanised is where I see a problem. I call on the Minister for agriculture to strengthen the regulations around euthanising these animals. There have to be stronger regulations. It was overseen by the Department even though the Department did not carry out the euthanising of the animals. I am very passionate about how animals are treated, as everybody in this House knows, and I would never like to see any animals mistreated. There is an ongoing case of animal cruelty but we need to see stronger regulation around how animals are euthanised. I wish everyone in this House an enjoyable summer.”
“He is working the land, but he also maybe has another job block-laying or whatever he is at locally. However, his family is reared there. He is buying his groceries in the local shop. He is spending all the money locally. He is probably doing a small bit of farming, drainage and whatever else. Everything is local. Everything is supporting local jobs and local communities. That, in itself, is very important. When you go out to the west of Ireland and look out across the sea, the nearest school could be 23 miles away. Glangevlin and Dowra are what we classify as rural where people have to travel for 23 or 24 miles to get to local schools. It is all about supporting those schools, supporting communities and keeping communities alive. I welcome it and thank the Minister for his attendance today.”
“I welcome the Minister. I, too, support the countermotion. My colleagues have raised a number of issues but I would like to touch on the GAA's demographics report. It is about how we support those clubs in the countryside that are finding it hard to get players and the population to stay in that area. In my home village, it is all about supporting two local schools. In the case of the one in Ballinamuck, if we can support keeping even three families around and there are two children in each family, we keep a national school open and we keep a teacher there. With that, we keep a bus on the road and we also keep a GAA field alive. It is very important that we understand what rural Ireland actually means. It means, with the likes of the farm assist, that when a farmer gets the farm assist he is staying at home. He is farming.”
“They can live without grass for a certain amount of time but we cannot switch water off for animals in this sort of weather. In this day and age, I cannot understand how Irish Water cannot provide a service. There are water-harvesting systems all over the world. Do we not have a back-up system for when we get 14 or 20 days of good weather? Every year this happens. We see a hose-pipe ban and water shortages. It is crazy, given the amount of rainfall we get over the year, to say that we have a water shortage in Ireland again and to send out letters to elderly people. I hope somebody from Irish Water will address this in the media in the short term, rather than frightening farmers once again with talk about switching off water for their livestock.”
“I rise to address a concern that Councillor Michael Boyle raised yesterday in respect of Donegal. I compliment him on raising what will be a huge concern all over Ireland. It is that Irish Water has sent out notification that it intends to switch off water. I know it is putting in a hose-pipe ban and that is fair enough because people do not need to wash cars or water lawns at this time of year. However, it is talking about switching off water when we have livestock and farmers and we have temperatures in excess of what we are used to. Some of these are elderly farmers. Some farmers might not even have received the notice. To switch off water on a farm during weather like this is cruel. It is inhumane. Cattle will go crazy if they do not have water.”
“It galls me to say this but I unfortunately am trying to farm marginal, poor land in County Longford. However, the likes of Offaly, Meath and Kildare - this is no disrespect to counties down south - have lovely green fields that are taken up with these solar panels. Really and truly, it is not the space we need to be going to. We need to think outside the box. This is land that should be used for the production of food, whatever it may be, but when solar panels are put on it, it is gone for all time. There should be some discussion on the use of roofs and marginal areas. Anywhere we see good land, there should be no solar panels. That is my thinking about where we are going with this. I would welcome that discussion, which we need to have.”
“I also rise to welcome one of the largest rooftop solar projects to take place in County Cavan at the Mannok building, which was Seán Quinn's old site. The size of three football fields, it shows what can be done when people come together. I raise this issue because many solar farms are being fitted at this moment in time on agricultural land and we are losing land that is needed for food production. Given the amount of roof space that is available on all large buildings, including industrial ones, a discussion is needed regarding State intervention, with the ESB, so that we can come up with a State-led pilot project whereby we invest in solar panels on farm roof sheds and industrial roofs and envisage generating electricity without taking up good agricultural land. We have seen this all over Ireland.”
“I, too, would like to be associated with the thoughts for Máire Lillis. I thank Senator Flaherty for such kind words. I hope the Lillis family can find some comfort in the joy they had for the 24 years that Máire was on this earth. Today, I rise to speak about the Longford Agricultural Show that was held last Sunday in Councillor Gerry Hagan's field. It was a spectacular show. I would like to wish Ballinamuck Olde Fair Day, which is taking place next Sunday in my own village of Ballinamuck, continued success. It is run by the locals and represents old traditions on old fair day. It has been very successful for the last number of years and I wish it well this year. It seems that the weather is going to hold up for people.”
“Farmers do not get sick leave. They do not get time off. When there is snow on the ground, people in other sectors can ring their workplaces and say they do not intend to go to work because the roads are slippy. Unfortunately, farmers must get up and milk their cows, feed the cattle and look after livestock. A farmer does not get the same privileges as workers in other sectors. They do not get time to say that they are taking a day off, even when bereavement hits. Therefore, I welcome the new CAP proposals, as they will support family bereavement on a farm. The proposals will support a farmer so that they can take five days off with their spouse, travel down the country and spend time away from the farm. Such provision will help with mental health in young farmers and older farmers . I welcome anything that supports our rural communities.”
“I rise to speak about the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP. For decades, the narratives that surrounded CAP have been a battleground of maximising the different sectors that can extract the most from the budget, be it the suckler cow sector, the sheep sector or the tillage sector, yet the fundamental human element has constantly been ignored. I refer to the quality of life of the person working the land. For generations, farmers have not taken time off. They have not got time to take time off. I will supply some figures: a dairy farmer takes 19 days off, on average, in a total year, so is a complete slave to the land; 63% of beef farmers are forced to work off farm due to the poor income, using up to 19 days of their annual leave to work on the farm; and 87% of Irish farms rely primarily on their own family labour.”
“I hope that we can find a point in the Drumlish, Dromard and Aughnacliffe area. There were two collection points there last year. If we can get at least one collection point this year, that will be good. Farmers all over Ireland are paying for the plastic to be collected and recycled every time they buy a roll of wrap, silage covers and all the rest of it. This is a facility that has been put in and supported by our Government. If we do not get these facilities up and running and have plastic collected, this will cause huge concern on farms. I hope there are no other areas in the country that have this problem. If there are, I am here to help. Hopefully, we can get the plastic picked up in these areas.”
“I too would like to be associated with the comments regarding our new Leader. It is a huge achievement for Senator Ahearn and his family. I hope he will really enjoy the post, and I am sure that he will. He has been very fair to us all. Today, I am raising the issue of the Irish Farm Film Producers Group, IFFPG. This is a group that collects all the plastic recycled from baled silage all over Ireland. I acknowledge, first of all, that the IFFPG did ring me back this morning regarding collection points in the north Longford area, which is my area. Two points will not be collecting plastic this year. It was disappointing to see that information this morning. It raised concern that farmers would have to travel long distances to recycling points. I received a phone call from the group this morning and I thank it for that.”
“I hope Bord Bia will come out and give a statement about where our markets have gone because we have farmers who will actually go to the wall. They will not exist after this year. They made profits last year, invested in their farms and now, they are seeing huge losses this year. It is a sector that is really in trouble. I hope somebody out there can give me an answer about why the factories keep pulling beef at a time when the market for beef, with the World Cup in America taking place, will see the consumption of beef on the rise. There is something wrong. Some questions need to be answered here regarding why month on month, week on week, we see beef prices falling between 5 cent and 10 cent. It is a sector that is really in trouble and I do not think people here realise that farmers will actually go to the wall because of this one.”
“I rise to discuss the current problem that is in our beef sector. We have seen the price of beef fall again this week and last week. It is a sector that is in grave danger. We have farmers losing, on average, between €300 and in excess of €500 on animals that they have purchased and fed over the past six to eight months. The beef sector is really in crisis. Since Bord Bia has been stood down, we have seen beef prices fall at a rapid rate. I would like Bord Bia to come out and give a statement about where our markets have gone. Is Bord Bia still in operation? Who is looking after our markets at this moment in time? Since the review of Bord Bia, the Larry Murrin incident and whatever has happened, we have seen beef prices fall month on month.”
“What is going on here today is detrimental. We have farmers in this country. That is detrimental. That is absolutely criminal. That is detrimental to our beef sector. Our beef farmers are suffering at this minute in time where beef has fallen every day by 27 cent per kilo and we have a MEP coming into this Chamber. That is detrimental. That is disgusting.”
“My brother in America rang and asked me what the hell was going on that there were tanks on the streets of Dublin. As Trump said in America, false information can be damaging at all times. Mr. Mullooly knows that was false. I ask him to withdraw his comments in this House today. I ask him to get up and confirm it was false information. People need to see the smoke from the trees.”
“Any safeguard that protects Irish farming is something that every farmer needs to know about. I would like to clarify one issue regarding school meals. We have huge businesses in Longford, as Senator Flaherty said. I have visited these businesses and know at first hand that the meat that goes into our school meals comes from local produce. Local farmers are delivering into local abattoirs that are supplying these businesses. I ask Mr. Mullooly to withdraw what he said in this House. He worked in RTÉ but has not clarified the statements he made in the European Parliament to the effect that there were tanks on the streets of Dublin during a peaceful protest. I ask him to withdraw that statement. That was very damaging to this country on a world stage.”
“The MEPs are very welcome. As a small rural farmer from north Longford, I totally agree with the sentiments Mr. Mullooly expressed earlier. We have to protect the farming community at all costs. Food security has to be number one when it comes to the next CAP. That is certain. The responsibility for defining an "active farmer" should continue to rest with the member state and, therefore, it should continue to rest with Ireland. We should define "active farmer" ourselves. I would not like us to lose that. We have a lot of people who are not actively farming but are still in receipt of huge CAP payments. We must target supports for active and productive farming. I want to ask all our MEPs about the safeguards. Some of them voted against the safeguards and others voted for them. Could they clarify why they voted against the safeguards?”
“I ask parents to try not to put pressure on their kids when they are sitting exams because they are under enough pressure themselves. I wish all students the very best in their exams. I hope parents realise they are under enough pressure with the exams and do not put any more pressure on them at home.”
“I would like to be associated with the comments of my colleague from Longford, Senator Flaherty, on the brutal treatment of Thomas Quinn, a local garda in our area. I will leave it there because Senator Flaherty covered it well. I would like to speak about mental health this week. The issue of mental health certainly hit our areas of Drumlish and the wider area of Newtown Forbes in the past number of weeks. It has hit a student population who are devastated at the loss of a number of their friends. I hope that as we come up to exams, parents will be cognisant that there is a sight of pressure on kids who are going into these exams and that not every child can be a doctor or a barrister. They will always find a way in life.”
“The factories have them for six weeks and the retailer has them before he sells them for maybe 21 days. If we are talking about food security we have to get serious about this. I call on MII to give a statement on why the price of beef is falling at the rate it is at this time of the year.”
“It is lovely to get elected and is a great achievement. I raise an issue regarding beef prices. There was a huge increase in beef prices last year for farmers but unfortunately this year there has been a decrease and a number of farmers are losing between €4 to €5.50 a head on prices last year for the same weight of animal killed in factories. We are talking about food security. It has to be priority number one but we are seeing massive losses on farms. Despite this, the retailers are paying €13.99 to €25.99 for the same beef the farmers are getting €6.30 or €6.50 for. There is a huge price gap here for the factories and there is huge price-gouging going on whether we like it or not. The farmer is keeping those cattle for 500 to 600 days on average in most cases.”
“I would also like to be associated with the comments regarding Senator Seán Kyne, now Deputy Kyne. I first of all congratulate him and his wider team but also the people of Galway for something very special. Seán Kyne is very likeable but he is also trustworthy. That is the message we got on the doors, when we canvassed in Galway, that Seán Kyne is a likeable fellow and is trustworthy. We see people giving out on social media that he did not get the highest vote and so on. Democracy is at play here and it is strong in this country. It is not first past the post. People have to understand that. There are some woeful comments that he did not get the highest vote but at the end of the day, he finished first at the end of the race, which is what democracy is all about. Moving on from that, I congratulate Daniel Ennis and his family.”
“It is lovely to see that kids have an interest and want to be that way. I am so proud that we have kids like that in this day and age. I hope that more kids and more farmers, and especially more older farmers, will recognise the value of the woman in agriculture. There was one thing my grandmother used to say: if you want something done, ask a woman to do it, and that way you will be sure it will get done. I will leave my contribution on that note.”
“The youngest girl in the house, Ellie Brady, is the only one, along with my younger son, who wants to put on the pair of wellingtons and go farming with her father every time I am at home. She is so encouraging. She is all about technology, at 14 years of age, regarding herd watching and stuff I am lost and mind-boggled about, to be honest. When the time for scanning comes, she is the one who takes out the pen and is able to set up the phone to show a message to say that the cow is due to calve. It is unbelievable what children can do in farming.”
“It is unbelievable to say that 48% of our young people do not understand where food comes from. We cannot and should not lose this connection. Educating people and having someone like Carina Roseingrave who is willing to set up a programme to bring kids to her farm during the four months when the seasons change, with the calving period, milk production and cheese production, is certainly something we should embrace. I hope we might have a chat again regarding putting some funding in place for her. As Senators, we should look at a training programme and what she is willing to do on her farm if it encourages anybody to take over a farm or get into farming. I hope my daughter is looking at this debate.”
“To say she is a real ambassador for women in agriculture in this country is an understatement. When we speak to her, she has such a passion for food production and for women in agriculture. Her goal is to educate the younger kids of Ireland, especially younger girls, so that they see there is a viable living to be had in taking over the family farm and making a living out of it. She should be complimented because what she has done in County Clare is really special. She commented to me when I spoke to her earlier that she would like to see funding put in place for training to encourage more kids and women into agriculture. She hopes she can set up a programme on her farm where she can bring in kids because 48% of kids in Ireland do not know where food comes from.”
“This tells us where Ireland is globally. The world itself has not recognised the value of women in agriculture or in the workforce. Investment and policy programmes that work for girls and women have to be key for the European Union. Women make up 41% of the global agricultural workforce, yet too often they have no access to finance, technology or training. It would be remiss of me not to congratulate the Minister on appointing Carina Roseingrave as ambassador for Ireland this year. She runs a mixed farm in County Clare where she milks cows. She was in childcare and, unfortunately, her business was not sustainable, so she has gone into farming full time. She runs a pedigree herd of Charolais and Limousin cattle. She runs a dairy herd and a suckler herd.”
“I welcome the Minister to the House. My grandmother was of the era when she was never on the herd number, but she was always the woman who organised what had to be done on the farm. That era of women must not be forgotten. We have seen a change. We in Ireland are the leaders when it comes to supporting women in farming and agriculture. I will go through a couple of statistics. Men and women are equal in most developed countries. The United Nations has 17 sustainable development goals and gender is featured in all 17. There can be no sustainable development without gender equality. With regard to education, 15 million girls will never get a chance to read or write. A total of 33 million women and girls live on less than $1.90 a day compared to 4.4 million men. Women are 14 times more likely to die during a disaster.”
“I hope that the people of Dublin and Ireland will come out. It is the last leg of their journey. I would like to see a huge crowd turn out for them. I welcome that the Tánaiste, Deputy Simon Harris, has invited them to Leinster House to acknowledge both their achievement and the awareness they have brought about in respect of dementia. Their efforts have brought people across all Thirty-two Counties together and brought about awareness dementia. I congratulate the Adams brothers on what they have achieved over the past number of days. I would like this House to recognise that achievement and to congratulate them and their family.”
“Today, I rise to highlight the conclusion of the journey of two young brothers, the Adams brothers, Jordan and Cian, two young lads who are doing 32 marathons all over Ireland in 32 days. It is a mammoth task. It is to remember their mother, Geraldine, but also bring about awareness about dementia. The response they have got from people in every county of Ireland has been immense. Senator Scahill and other Members of this House met with them in their counties, ran with them and encouraged them to continue. What these two lads have achieved and the response they have got from the Irish people is mind-boggling. Their relatives are from Drumlish in County Longford, where I come from, and Ballinamuck. We are proud of what they have achieved. They come to the capital in Dublin on 28 May.”
“I thank the Minister of State for his response to the briefing we had in the audiovisual room at which the NARGC and others told us that there is no forum to which recognised national organisations are invited as organisations. There is no forum to discuss the serious issues I have outlined. If that is the case, it is not right. I ask the Minister of State to ask the Minister to review how the Department is facilitating engagement with stakeholder groups representing the real day-to-day concerns of licensed firearms users across rural Ireland. I hope that, going forward, those groups will be part of forums like that held in Kilmainham and will be allowed to engage in a constructive manner regarding the licensing of firearms. I hope the next report from the NARGC and the organisation will be more positive.”
“At the briefing last week, we heard about a meeting in Kilmainham which the Minister established, but we heard there are still no terms of reference and that the national organisations have been excluded from membership. Where individuals from the national organisations were invited, it was made clear to them that they were attending in an individual capacity. Most worrying, however, is that we have heard that the concern attendees tried to raise regarding inconsistencies in the Garda implementation of licences was ruled out of order by the chair on the basis that it was not within the remit of the meeting.”
“There are reports of failures to provide formal refusal letters outlining reasons for the refusal of some applications. These inconsistencies should not be happening. They are unfair, undermine confidence in the system and create uncertainty for compliant, law-abiding licenceholders. A number of weeks ago, I hosted a well-attended briefing in the audiovisual room, at which speakers from the National Association of Regional Game Councils, NARGC, and firearms users' representative groups outlined the problems facing too many licensed firearms users in Ireland. While the litany of inconsistency outlined by both organisations that I have summarised today offers some reason for worry, what is more worrying is that the national organisations have been denied a forum to discuss these issues with the Department.”
“These include administrative failures such as loss or misplacement of applications requiring applicants to restart the process from the beginning. In some cases, applications are not processed within the expected timeframe, thereby creating legal uncertainties for applicants whose licences lapse during the delay. Some applicants have been told they own too many firearms, despite previously meeting all legal requirements, while others have faced additional or arbitrary conditions not mentioned in the Commissioner's guidelines, such as excessive documentation requirements. More serious concerns relate to decisions influenced by personal views of certain types of firearms or judgments based on applicants' age rather than statute criteria.”
“I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, for coming today. I will address a few matters relating to licensed firearms. Ireland has approximately 150,000 licensed firearms holders, accounting for more than 210,000 licensed firearms, the vast majority of which are shotguns and rifles used by farmers and game hunters every day in rural Ireland. Firearm ownership is tightly regulated. Ireland's firearms regime is widely regarded as one of the most stringent in the world. Garda superintendents play a central role in granting and refusing licences. I welcome that the vast majority of firearms licences are issued in a timely and proper manner. However, no system is perfect and problems are being reported relating primarily to local inconsistencies in the interpretation and implementation of licensing systems.”
“However, if somebody who is representing Ireland wants to a carry the Tricolour on his or her shoulder, he or she should be allowed to do so. I hope this can be resolved as a matter of urgency. We have seen the trials taking place in Northern Ireland this year. I would hope the Tricolour would be flown proudly, as it always has been, and would represent this country in the fashion it always has. I hope this can be resolved sooner rather than later. Perhaps my drawing attention to it might highlight the problem and get it resolved.”
“I want to discuss a problem I have tried to sort out over the last number of weeks. It is the issue of flying the Irish flag by an Irish team. Irish members of the International Sheepdog Society have been notified of a change in policy whereby the Irish team that represents the whole of Ireland at international events will not be allowed to fly the Irish flag when representing Ireland at world events. I have engaged with the new chairman and to say that he has been unco-operative would be an understatement. I would like this issue to be resolved because it will cause an ongoing row, North and South, in this country where we have seen peace in recent times. I do not have a problem if a member of the team from Northern Ireland wishes to carry a symbol representing Northern Ireland.”
“-----agri-sector. They contribute so much to the sector, and I would not like to see any of our people who are exporting cattle labelled in such a fashion. I hope Senator Conway will withdraw some of those remarks about our live exports.”
“-----the record straight on Senator Joe Conway's remarks about our live exports. It is important we set the record straight before we go any further. Our live exports are a very important part of our-----”
“It is a late spring and the crops are being sown now, fertiliser is being spread. Everybody knows the cost of fertiliser is high at the moment. That is another issue. I hope the money will roll. That is important. The money needs to roll to the people who need it most. They are the people who get up in the morning. Some 99% of the people who were on the streets of Dublin, Galway, Cork and Limerick were hurting. I am glad to see that they are back to work. I hope this money is rolled out to them sooner rather than later and that the scheme will be simplified.”
“Farmers can put more solar panels on all the sheds in the country to feed into the national grid and receive some money back from ESB Networks for supplying the energy. That is something we need to look at. I welcome all the moneys on offer to our farmers. As the Minister said, the VAT on petrol and white diesel was 23% but the VAT on green diesel up until now was 13.5%. Farmers are working at this time. The general consensus is that this will work and will ease the burden for the farming communities and contractors. Some clarity is needed around what defines a contractor. It is up to each farmer to fill in the paperwork and submit it. I hope the Department is ready to issue the money to the farmers and contractors. It is badly needed. We have seen the price of diesel at the moment. The weather is getting good.”
“That is where the scheme should start and finish. Why can the Government not cap fuel prices? That question has been thrown at us all over . Why do we not cap it? Has this Government profited from the hike in fuel prices? Some people out there, and some in the Opposition, claim that we have made multi-millions out of the price and profits. I would like to have that rectified in this House here today. We all know this is not only Ireland's challenge but a global challenge. Challenges, when put to farmers, always come out the other side. The war in Ukraine and the war in Iran certainly impacted on Ireland as a whole this year. Maybe it is time to think outside the box in regard to farming. Maybe it is time to look at generating our own energy supplies.”
“If a farmer or contractor has a tax clearance certificate and can prove that he bought a certain amount of gas-marked oil in 2025, will he be able to get a full rebate on the amount he bought in 2025 or will there be a cap on the amount of rebate that he will receive? There are huge contractors and then there are smaller contractors. Will there be a cap on the fuel that was bought? Simplification is a word we use around this House when it comes to farming and farmers. I hope this scheme will be simplified so that there will be no pitfalls in it for the farmers. If a person has receipts for diesel, has a tax clearance certificate from the Revenue Commissioners and can prove that a certain amount of diesel was bought, then that person should be entitled to claim back that same amount of diesel for 2026.”
“We have seen the protests on the streets last week and the anger and frustration of hauliers, farmers and contractors. We have listened to them and I welcome the support scheme that the Minister and his colleagues implemented. We need clarification on a few parts of the scheme going forward. A question that is frequently asked is, will an agricontractor that carries out land reclamation, for example hedge cutting, drainage or roads through farm lands, be entitled to the rebate scheme? If a farmer purchased gas-marked oil in February 2025 for this season, will this amount to be taken into account for the rebate scheme for the year going forward?”
“I welcome the Minister back to the House. When we mention agriculture, this year so far we have seen so many pitfalls, such as the TB programme, fuel protests, Mercosur challenges, CAP coming in and on top of all that we have the bluetongue vaccine to roll out throughout the whole country, which I hope we do not lose sight of. The backbone of this country is farming and we cannot forget that when we see the amount of money that is made from our exports on an annual basis. These are the people who get up early in the morning and go to work. As one of our colleagues in the Lower House said, they are the people with the black hands. I might not have black hands but they are torn because I was fencing this morning trying to keep in sheep from the neighbour. That is one thing we do not really expect but it has to be done.”
“Learning and listening is needed, and the Government will learn and listen because Fine Gael was always known as a party for the farmers and I am glad our Minister, Deputy Heydon, has worked hard to deliver the package we need out there for them. There was one thing that really annoyed everybody on that streets and I have to be clear and say it. When a protest takes place and there is a mention of bringing the Army on top of protesters, it really revs up the Irish people. That has to be recognised. We did not need that at that time.”
“However, what I did not like about the whole thing is there was a coffin carried down there by people who never burned a gallon of diesel in their lives. That is the reality. There were people carrying a coffin down the streets to outside the gate here who did not know anything about contractors or farmers. They do not know anything about where food comes out of, fellas getting up in the morning, producing food, not going to bed at night or getting three hours' sleep and getting up to lamb ewes or calve cows. They moved in on top of it because they had a grievance with Government. That is the point. The protesters on the street created a monster that they did not think they could create.”
“When the farmers on the streets were asked to move their tractors off O'Connell Street, it was three, four or five o'clock in the morning. In fairness, a lot of them got into their tractors and lorries and moved them off it. Anybody who did not move a tractor or lorry off it could not because they had alcohol taken at the time they were asked to move it. In fairness to them, they said to the gardaí that they had to leave the tractors there, they had alcohol taken and they would move them first thing in the morning. That is the decency we are dealing with on the streets - honest, decent, hard-working men who got up and moved them the next morning, and they did not want any trouble or anything else.”