Paul Daly
Agricultural Panel · Fianna Fáil · Ireland
“I am a converted EV driver – I will receive my third electric vehicle on Friday. I charge at home and I have solar panels but I have done a night rate deal with the ESB whereby between the hours of 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. I can get electricity at 10 cent a unit.”
“At the outset I would like to be associated with the words of the Deputy Leader on the passing of David Andrews. I want to extend my personal sympathies to our colleague, Barry Andrews MEP, his nephew, Chris, our colleague here in the Seanad, and the extended Andrews family.”
“It is way more expensive to go to a fast charger than it is to fill up with diesel or petrol. We need the Minister in here. We need to discuss the infrastructure and the pricing.”
“Perhaps we could also incorporate into the discussion with the Minister awareness of the prevalence of the diseases that are now evident in the agriculture sector. We heard a lot of talk about bluetongue over the winter months, including that it would not be a threat until temperatures went over 12°C.”
“I belatedly congratulate our former colleague and former Leader, Deputy Seán Kyne, on his election. I also congratulate Deputy Daniel Ennis. I do not know Deputy Ennis personally. I have always found Deputy Kyne to be a good colleague, a good friend and a very fair and impartial Leader. I wish him every success in the Lower House.”
“It is very hard to appreciate it at a time when the weather is fine. This may only be a window. It may not be as fine next week. The cycle comes and goes. Farmers need to just stop and think that the work always gets done. It does not all have to be done today. I urge that we would create awareness on that.”
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“We need to have common sense, if we can at all. Either in his response now or later, the Minister of State might tell me how as a policymaker, as public representative, elected on the Agricultural Panel to deal with issues in the agriculture sector, I can positively influence this in future for the people out there. I am not trying to influence it in any way in the negative.”
“I accept the Minister of State's response. Regarding his final point, the people I represent here do not have redundant meters; they are needed. There is an accumulation of costs because the meters are fragmented. Before 2014 and the establishment of Irish Water, the local authorities decided this. They had one customer charge irrespective of the number of meters. I take on board what the Minister of State said about how neither he nor I could influence Uisce Éireann's charging regime, but it is hard to accept that. We are the policymakers and Deputy Cummins is the Minister of State. As I said at the outset, I will not be going away. There must be some way we can have an input into this issue. It is common sense. I know that seems to be very much a thing of the past, but it is something I would like to revive.”
“I do not come here to raise these issues for a Facebook post. I raise them because I feel strongly about them and I want to get something done about them for the people concerned. I will not be going away; I will be in the Minister of State's hair. Maybe today would be the day for him to save himself all that hassle and give me the positive response I want.”
“He notes that the current system is the equivalent of the electricity supplier basing a person's bill on the number of light switches they have in their house. This is a very good analogy and comparison in that the current system does not make sense. A person pays for the amount of electricity, or in this case the amount of water used, not the number of light switches or meters a person has. It is important that this be looked into. I know there is a review at the moment that is somewhat delayed. The outstanding tariffs expire at the end of September of this year. There will be a new charging regime going forward. I hope I am not to late and I would like to see that this would be considered under that review. If the Minister of State's response is not positive, I will not be going away.”
“If a person has a farm, even a not very big one, because of the nature of the stone walls in the west of Ireland, the person could have, as is the case here, ten, 15 or 20 different holdings in a fragmented form. My request is that, Uisce Éireann, in conjunction with the CRU and with the Minister of State's guidance, would have a customer charge as opposed to numerous meter charges. The farmers I am referring to would know at the start of the year what their charge was, irrespective of how many connections they had. I have had a lot of correspondence with a friend and colleague of mine, Councillor Damien Ryan, in Mayo. He has raised this issue in respect of Mayo and has used a very good analogy to do so.”
“I know of one man who has ten meters. Some of them are on fields he cuts silage on. He does not even use any water on them, but he needs to have them because he has a fragmented holding. I also know of another gentleman who has 21 individual connections. Under the current non-domestic charges or tariff rates from Uisce Éireann that are set through the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities, CRU, framework, there is a separate charge for each connection and then a usage charge. Most dry stock farmers would probably be in band 1, so with potential increases in October, they are looking at in the region of €90-odd per connection. For the man with ten, that is €900 but for the man with 21, that is between €1,900 and €2,000 per year before he starts using or paying for any water at all. There is no way out of it or around it.”
“I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, to the Chamber. He is a former colleague here, and I think it might be the first time we have interacted since his elevation, so I congratulate him on both his election to the Lower House and his elevation to the position of Minister of State. Given the fact that we are former colleagues, I hope he will look on my request favourably. The Commencement matter refers to the need for the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to review the Uisce Éireann water connection policy in order that farmers with multiple land parcels would pay a single customer charge rather than paying for multiple connections. This is an issue of major concern in my end of the country and farther west, more so than on larger holdings in the Minister of State's neck of the woods.”
“If they go to Teagasc's or AgriKids' social media, they can promote that this art competition is being run in conjunction with a webinar that is being organised by Teagasc and many school visits by Alma from AgriKids. Unfortunately, the closing date is 6 June, only ten days away. It would be really appreciated if Members could use their influence on social media or their contacts in their local national schools to get the children involved. It is an art piece to highlight the importance of safety or hazards on farms. It is a brilliant exercise and very worthwhile. If we can educate our children, they will the police and they will educate the older generations on farms.”
“Along the lines of Senator Rabbitte, when it comes to teaching and learning to swim in schools, as someone who has a farm safety Bill in the system and who has done a lot of work on this, I am convinced that, to overcome this problem, we need to start at the very lowest level and that is in our national schools. If children are aware of the hazards and children can see the dangers, they will police mammy, daddy, granny and grandfather. With that in mind, I warmly welcome the primary school art competition that has been introduced and announced recently by Teagasc and Alma Jordan of AgriKids. I ask all Members here who are ever-present on social media in their local communities to promote this.”
“I reiterate the remarks of my colleague, Senator Rabbitte, when it comes to water safety on the eve of the bank holiday weekend. In that vein, it is a similar issue I wish to raise, which is farm safety. In that same sphere of coming into the June bank holiday weekend with the ever-increasing workload on farms, including silage making, hay making and, in my area, going to the bog, it is a busy period. With that extra workload and that children are now coming home on school holidays, and we all know farm families live on their farm, the farmyard is a playground as well as being an area where there are many risks. Going into the long weekend, I welcome and note that, this morning, Minister of State, Deputy Healy-Rae, has issued a statement urging people to be conscious and safe.”
“A Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine inspector going out and saying that there is no threat to agricultural land from a noxious weed because it is on the side of a road is pure and utter lunacy. The authorities in question need to be treated the very same and need to shoulder the same responsibility.”
“Reading the condition, what it says about the non-agricultural landowners, which includes local authorities and the roads authorities, is that if noxious weeds are reported and found on non-agricultural land, then an assessment will be conducted by a Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine officer. If there is no threat to agricultural land, then no enforcement or further action should be taken. Seeds and pollinating honeybees do not know the difference between agricultural land and other land. If there is ragwort on the side of a road, we can be sure it will end up inside nearby fences and hedges. The very same responsibility and onus is on local authorities and roads authorities.”
“I welcome that last week the Minister for agriculture included blackgrass on the list of noxious weeds under the noxious weeds legislation. It joins a group of other weeds, including broad-leaved dock, common ragwort, creeping thistle, spring wild oat and winter wild oat. They are all invasive species and are very destructive on agricultural land. The onus is on all landowners to remove these species, and that includes local authorities and roads authorities. However, on reading the small print, the farmer is obliged to look after it under the good agricultural and environmental condition, GAEC, 8. If farmers do not fulfil their duty under that condition, they will suffer deductions to their area-based payments. Farmers do not need that stick. Even without that stick, farmers are good custodians of the land.”
“If nothing else comes out of this debate, I want the Minister of State to take that back to the Department of Transport and see if it can be looked at. It would save a fortune of money as well as the good it would do for biodiversity. That is the one issue I wanted to raise. I thank our spokesperson, Senator Fitzpatrick, for allowing me the time. I hope the Minister of State can bring this matter back and that something can be done about it. It is a no-brainer.”
“If we had a national park of 95 acres or a farmer or an individual who was prepared to donate 95 acres to the State for biodiversity, there would be bells and whistles everywhere. We have it under the control of Transport Infrastructure Ireland. Leave it alone. Let the bees have it until September. That is only the road from Dublin to Galway; we have motorways all over the country. I got slated when I mentioned the need to cut grass for safety reasons on secondary roads and back roads. I am not talking about secondary roads and back roads. I am not talking about long, heavy grass that lies out on a road. I am talking about 3 in. or 4 in. of grass on the verges of motorways that is not in any way a safety hazard.”
“It does not in any way affect the safety of the motorway. It does not in any way hinder visibility along the motorway. These are lawns 2 in. or 3 in. high because these people will be back mowing religiously again in another three weeks. We are trying to promote no-mow May, etc., for the sake of the dandelion and the red and white clover. Pollination is part of biodiversity. Our Irish native honeybees are becoming extinct. We do not need to mow this grass until September. If we do a simple calculation, on the motorway I mentioned, which runs from here to Galway, 1 m of grass on both sides of that road multiplied by the distance from here to Galway is the equivalent of 95 or 96 acres of potential dandelions for our bees. The State owns that land and there is no reason of safety or otherwise to interfere with it during the summer months.”
“There is an issue I have raised here before and it is a bugbear I have. The fourth national biodiversity national action plan refers to taking, "a Whole-of-Government and Whole-of-Society approach". The new biodiversity guidance for public and State bodies sets out that it is a legal requirement for public and State bodies to consider biodiversity in their decision-making and daily operations. I will move on to Transport Infrastructure Ireland and the maintenance of our motorways. It drives me mad, to say the least, every morning and evening as I come to Dublin from Kilbeggan on the M4 and M6 these days to see lorries with big yellow arrows protecting tractors with flail mowers and self-propelled lawn mowers mowing the 1.5 m wide strip of grass on both sides and in the centre of the motorway. It is not in any way a hazard.”
“I wish to be associated with the remarks of the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, and those of my colleague, Senator Fitzpatrick, in sending my deepest sympathies and condolences to my good friend and colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy O’Sullivan, on the death of his sister, Anne. Go ndéanfaidh Dia trócaire ar a hanam uasal. When I stand up in the House, people wait to see what aspect of farming I will talk about, but I am going to give everyone a break on this occasion and not mention farming. I acknowledge, however, the great role that our farmers and agricultural sector play in our biodiversity. As the custodians of the land, while often knocked, our farmers and farming community are our best minders and proactively protect and enhance our biodiversity. I will leave the agricultural side at that.”
“We have to insist on environmental and food safety transparency and that beef does not come into our country and our markets that is not of the same quality as our own, but we cannot say we oppose the trade deal in its entirety.”
“We need to stay focused on that. I have to comment on Mercosur, which gets so many mentions. Nobody in these Houses will defend Irish farming and agriculture more than me, as a farmer myself, but I am not opposed to Mercosur. I am opposed to elements of it. We need to get a good deal for our farmers in Mercosur. People stand up and oppose Mercosur but how can a country with an open market dependent on trade agreements oppose a trade deal at a time when the President of America is introducing tariffs? Never before were trade deals so important. We have to get the right Mercosur but we cannot knock it. During Brexit, when we were isolated, we went cap in hand to all the other members of the EU and they did not let us down. Trade in many of those countries depends on the Mercosur deal so why should we turn our backs on them?”
“That is in a nutshell what it meant to the people of Ireland. The Ireland of today is a changed place because of our membership of the EEC then and the EU now. We need to keep focus on where we came from. Let it be a different EU, a different Ireland and a different island but we cannot lose focus on where we came from and how we got to where we are. I want to talk about the CAP. Europe has changed. The emphasis, as we are all aware, is on the environment, defence and immigration, and now we are in a trade war. CAP was designed to provide cheap, traceable, quality food for our citizens. The money allocated to the CAP in the multi-annual financial framework, MFF, needs to remain the same. We cannot rob that fund to fund our defence, environmental issues or immigration problems, or indeed the trade war we are in, for want of a better term.”
“I thank Senator Casey for allowing me to share time, as time is limited and I was not going to get an opportunity. I thank the Minister of State for being here today. While I will not disclose his age - I do not know it down to a fine art but I have a fair idea - I know he has never lived in an Ireland that was not in the EEC or EU. I, on the other hand, was eight when Jack Lynch led us into the EEC. I am the eldest of seven who were reared and educated and never wanted for anything on a very small farm with a lot of marginal land. My father and mother would not have been able to successfully do that or provide for us as they did if it had not been for the vision of the Government that led us into the EEC. Money became available to develop smallholdings and drain land and there were subsidies as part of the CAP.”
“When people are doing the sums, do they take into consideration the biodiversity and other benefits of the tree? Do they take into the equation the displacement of concrete by timber at the point of end use? Considering all these advantages of a tree, maybe a little carbon loss at planting might not be bad at all. If we opened up a lot more land that is not now eligible, as the Minister of State said, we would get back the confidence of the farmers and reach the required acreage.”
“The Dáil came to an end and we did not have any more meetings, so the Minister of State might update us on the feedback on the additional supports. When we mention dieback, we have to mention biosecurity and the bark beetle. If we have learned anything from the ash dieback scenario, it is that we need to keep out foreign diseases. With the storm damage and repair work, there is a lot of talk about machines coming in from Europe and elsewhere. We need to be extra vigilant about biosecurity and biodiversity. We have to keep the bark beetle out at all costs. As I said about land, there is an argument made that when peaty soil is disturbed when sowing trees, it releases a certain amount of carbon and that this amount may not be weighed against the sequestration of the tree.”
“The matter may not be straightforward for the reasons I have given, including the environment, large animals, different biodiversity and the lack of sunlight. We may need to put a bit of thought into this going forward. The Minister of State can come back to me on some of these points and does not have to answer today. One of the last initiatives we dealt with at the last agriculture committee considering forestry was the additional support provided under the reconstitution and underplanting scheme, RUS, for ash dieback. I remember there was divided opinion as to whether what was on offer – the €5,000 CAP payment the Minister of State mentioned and the additional money for clearing sites – would be enough.”
“I agree we can take positives out of this. It is not the end of the world and not a matter of negatives, but I have a few questions about replanting. I saw a forest whose condition was hard to believe in that, while the outside trees were all still standing, those in the centre were all down, showing how nature is an amazing thing. If there is to be removal and you make a roadway to replant the trees, will saplings survive in a mature forest environment, which may be the habitat of larger animals, which may have different biodiversity and where life may not get through to the extent expected? It may not just be as simple as taking out one tree and putting in another. Maybe the farmers and growers will need a little research and help on this one.”
“Has anybody done a survey as to whether the 6,000 ha that are ready to go and that are licensed will be planted, or is that just another figure we are using to balance an equation that may not be a realistic one? I read a couple of weeks ago in The Journal that the EPA has now said there could be anything up to a 7% reduction in agricultural emissions based on the figures. It was using a standard European or worldwide figure, but when it gets to more Ireland-specific figures, it has actually admitted that what we have been calculating or using as our emissions could be at least 7% less. How will that affect our sums going forward? Let me mention the few things the Minister of State specifically mentioned. With regard to the storm, I welcome the fact that he set up the windblow task force immediately.”
“If we do not have the 8,000, which we are not going to have, how are we going to reduce the emissions column? Who is going to suffer down the line? Do we need to be looking at that at this stage? There are questions that need to be asked. I do not know if the Minister of State said it today, but it is in documentation I have read, that there are 6,000 ha that are ready to go. Will they be planted? There is a lack of confidence because of what has gone on - the shenanigans that have happened, for want of a better word - over the past four, eight and ten years. People who applied for licences three, four or five years ago only got them last year or at the beginning of this year or whenever. Have they moved on?”
“However, not only did it come back approved for state aid, it also came back with a list of environmental small print about peaty land and how we could not go to X, Y and Z - the Minister of State knows them. Like him, I would question that. It is an area that needs to be revisited. If we cannot open up all our land for forestry, we are not going to meet our targets. On the targets and the 8,000 ha, last year it was 1,600 ha. We are getting closer to what might be achieved this year with the returns on the year to date so far. However, when we are coming in at 1,600 ha when it is meant to be 8,000 ha, how are we going to balance that book at the end of the day? For our climate targets, we have in one column 8,000 ha of forestry that is balancing something that is emitting in the other column.”
“The last three never get mentioned, however. It is always about sequestration. I agree wholeheartedly with the Minister of State about where we can and cannot plant trees. The buzz phrase the last time was the right tree in the right place for the right reasons with the right management. I would agree with the Minister of State that maybe we were not putting the right trees in the right place. If we are to get the private sector and the farmers back confident and enthusiastic, we have to open up some of what I would call poorer quality land. We had €1.3 billion invested the last time in the forestry programme. It had to go to Europe to be approved for state aid.”
“The Minister of State's first and biggest job is to get people's confidence back, and if he can get confidence back in the sector, he will be halfway to square one because he has a big body of work to do. I am not being critical in any way of anyone who went before him, but he has a big body of work to do to get to square one. That is a big ask of any one man, but I know and have confidence that he will do that. I welcome his attitude towards it. Something might have to sell to get the confidence back. There is always a debate, and it ends up coming down to emissions and climate targets. One would think the only thing a tree did was sequester carbon. Trees are a major part of good biodiversity. Forests and woods play a major role in our tourism industry. Timber is an unbelievable asset in our building trade.”
“This is vitally important, and I have scribbled notes the Minister of State can verify, but a word I have highlighted at the top and which he mentioned five times is "confidence". The Minister of State's biggest job of work at the outset of his new role is to reinstil confidence in the sector and the people on the ground - the farmers, landowners and people in the private sector whom we want to bring with us on this journey and who we want to plant trees so that we can meet our targets. I do not like being critical. I am solution driven. I am not going to rehash all the problems, but there were problems, as the Minister of State rightly said. People's confidence in the sector was shattered and still is to an extent.”
“I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber today. I am really enthusiastic about his enthusiasm, and I can vouch for it. I am a veteran of the previous two agriculture committees. I am the only one who sat on the previous agriculture committee with the licensing issues, in particular, that were ongoing. If there were a league table for topics discussed by the agriculture committee, forestry would have topped that league hands down. Although he was not on the committee, the Minister of State used to frequent most of those meetings as a non-member. I am delighted to be able to report to anyone who was not watching those meetings that his attitude and approach has not changed now that he has been elevated to the position of Minister of State. I am enthusiastic about that enthusiasm, if that makes sense.”
“It might be something the Minister of State would take up with the other Department or with the insurance companies in order that in situations where it is a 100- or 200-year event, it will not cripple poor families paying their insurance premiums on an annual basis.”
“The Minister of State might take this up with the insurance companies as to how they read the maps. Like insuring a car, I can go third party, fire and theft or comprehensive or I can include my windscreen or whatever. If flooding is the problem because people are in a certain location on a map when they are insuring their house, let there be a fraction of a premium increase to cover the flooding element on their insurance, but let it not also cost them that much extra for fire, lightning, theft and whatever else if they are in that situation. As I have said from the outset, this is not solely the Minister of State's problem. The Department is responsible for the maps, which are the problem.”
“The Minister of State said in his opening statement that these maps highlight one in 200 year potential events and there is a 1% chance of them happening, but this man and his family and his successors will be paying through the nose for this because they ended up inside a line on the map that is more than 500 m away from the River Brosna. I know the area very well; I am not too far from it. If this man's house is ever flooded, we will all need Noah's Ark around him and everywhere else. I know the people who draw the maps are looking at the one in 200 year events but there are consequences as to where these lines go and there is a serious element when the lines are going on the map of "to be sure, to be sure". As I said, there are consequences.”
“I have a particular instance outside Kilbeggan where a man was granted planning permission ten years ago, built his house and ticked all the boxes with the planning authority but in the interim new FRAMs were drawn by the Minister of State's Department under CFRAM or whatever and he is now inside a line that was put on a map and his insurance company has raised his premium enormously. He went to get quotations from other companies to mitigate this and they refused to even quote him because he is inside these lines.”
“I welcome that and wish him the very best of luck in his role nationally but I will keep the pressure on him for the local stuff in Westmeath. The issue I want to raise with him is something I have raised here previously. It is somewhat under his remit but it would also fit in under the remit of his constituency colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, in the context of insurance. It is the roles that the flood risk assessment maps, FRAMs, have when it comes to insurance, specifically insurance of properties.”
“I welcome the Minister of State and wish to be associated with all the congratulations he has received since he came in here. Like Senator Davitt, I soldiered with him in the chamber of Westmeath County Council so he will forgive me if by lapse of memory I call him a councillor or Boxer, but I know he will answer to both. Since I came in, I also have found out that a happy birthday is in order, so we send him good wishes in that regard as well. I am in a lucky position in that I will not have to bring up any local issues with the Minister of State because I know they are in his capable hands and as a fellow countyman I know this is one of the league tables that Westmeath will be top of when it comes to his efforts and his activities.”
“There has been an ongoing argument from those in the agriculture sector in this regard. We need a debate, possibly with both the Minister for agriculture and the Minister for the environment, to get a full explanation as to what went wrong here. Can we trust the new figures and the new modelling? There are life-changing things happening out there for farmers and the agriculture sector, based on what have been proven by the EPA to be false modelling and false figures. We need that debate as a matter of urgency.”
“That statement alone suggests that the EPA has been using worldwide or international standard modelling. Now that it has eventually got around to using Ireland-specific modelling, we can see that there have been massive reductions. The reduction in 2022 amounts to 1.56 million metric tonnes of CO2. The EPA has also stated that the agriculture sector is not going to meet the targets set for it by 2025 and 2030. On what figures is it basing that argument? What modelling does the EPA use to predict we are not going to meet the target for reductions? On the opposite side of the equation are carbon capture and sequestration, which the agriculture sector has the land and forestry to do. Was the EPA using Ireland-specific modelling for the figures quoted for our carbon capture and sequestration? Are hedgerows included?”
“I will ask the Leader to initiate a debate. As seems to often be the case with me, I do not know which Minister I am looking for. This is an agricultural issue but it may fall under the remit of the Minister for the environment. An article in last week's edition of the Irish Farmers' Journal , ran under the headline, "Farm emissions estimates cut by 7%." This is massive news in the context of the climate and the targets that have been set for the agriculture sector. The article states that a refinement of the greenhouse gas emission inventory of the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, has made better use of Ireland-specific data and has resulted in a downward revision of farming's emissions estimates for every year since 1994. The biggest revision was a 7% reduction in 2022.”
“If, in a worst-case scenario, what was announced affects their cost of living and exacerbates inflation in those countries, their disposable incomes will be limited and that will have a knock-on effect on what they buy off us. We need to keep an eye on all our trading partners across the world, not just America, and not lose focus on our other trading partners by concentrating solely on America.”
“this has brought that trade deal back into focus and we need to keep our eye very closely on the ball. Based on what I said at the outset, using a football analogy, we have often seen situations when teams have concentrated on a marquee player and then on the day of the big game it is another player who comes in, steals the show, and has a man of the match performance because they have taken their eye off him. We cannot take our eye off all our other deals. We are not the only country or continent affected by what was announced last night. All the countries we trade with and export to are going to be affected in some way.”
“That has to be acknowledged and thanked because I know how busy a schedule they have. I will be brief and it will not surprise the Minister of State that I will concentrate on the agricultural side of things and how developments may or may not affect the agriculture sector going forward. I know the great role the Minister of State plays in Europe and how passionate he is about that role. Europe has a big role to play in the Mercosur deal now. Under the current circumstances it has come back into the spotlight. We export a lot of dairy product, fish, meat and beef to America. Depending on the outcomes of what was announced last night regarding that sector, it is not the appropriate time to be committing to importing beef from South America. Certainly.”
“I am sharing time with Senator Dee Ryan. It would be remiss of me not to be associated with the remarks of Senator Andrews and to acknowledge the passing of the legend that was Mick O'Dwyer. From a Westmeath point of view, we will always remember the early 2000s and 2004 in particular, when we won our one and only Leinster Senior Football Championship, with the great Páidí Ó Sé in the Westmeath dugout and Mick O'Dwyer in the Laois dugout on both the day of the drawn game and the replay. Unfortunately, they have both passed now. Go ndéana Dia trócaire ar a n-anamacha uaisle. I thank the Minister of State and the Tánaiste. It has to be acknowledged that we are a mere 12 hours since the press conference in the Rose Garden and we have had the Tánaiste and the Minister of State here to be able to discuss these issues.”
“On this occasion, a stitch in time would definitely save the proverbial nine, and indeed more. We need an awareness campaign because many people outside the agricultural or political bubbles are not even aware that there have been cases. The general public, and in particular people who are travelling to and from those areas, need to be made aware in order that they can be cognisant of their movements when they return.”
“If that is not possible, I ask the Leader to relay to him the suggestion from this House to commence a targeted public awareness campaign which would particularly target people from Ireland who travel to or from the areas where cases have been confirmed. Such a campaign would ensure that people would be vigilant and aware of the consequences of possibly having come into contact with animals while in those areas and then visiting farms or coming into contact with animals when they return home. Indeed, some people may bring meat from areas where there are outbreaks. The last outbreak of foot and mouth disease in this country was in 2001. Many of us here can remember the consequences of that at the time. We do not need or want to go down that road again.”
“I wish to speak on a matter about which I am becoming more worried by the day. In the past couple of days, a fifth case of foot and mouth disease was confirmed in Slovakia. In fact, the Slovakian Government has now declared an official state of emergency in the country. This originated with one case in Germany on 6 January, followed by identified cases in Hungary and now Slovakia. In Slovakia, it is happening in a wider territory of the country. There have been cases confirmed on the Hungarian and Austrian borders. While I welcome the fact that the Minister for agriculture, Deputy Heydon, has urged vigilance within Ireland following the initial outbreaks, we need to go a step further. I propose that, if possible, the Minister comes to the House to address this issue.”
“We can talk about all the other geopolitical issues that there are, but, as Napoleon said, a war was never won on an empty stomach. We need to feed the people first and foremost. It is vital that we know where those negotiations stand. Because I cannot go to a committee, I am asking the Leader to bring the Ministers to the House to brief us on where that is at the moment.”