Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No disrespect to the last issue, but a more pressing one at the moment is the plight of farmers, particularly in the Shannon callows. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, will be announcing a scheme today – he brought it to the Cabinet today – to help those farmers. I thank my colleagues, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, Deputy Cowen, Deputy Troy, who organised the meeting with the Tánaiste, and Deputy Flaherty. We worked together to make a case on this issue. We also had the backing of Senator Dolan, as this affects an area close to which she lives. In fairness to the Government, a scheme will be announced this afternoon.

The farmers in question are in special areas of conversation, SACs. Under the rules, they cannot cut their meadows until July. Everyone knows what happened this July, in that there was incessant rain. When I inspected some of the areas along the Shannon, particularly in south Roscommon, I found that the water was a quarter of the way up the wheels of tractors. Imagine trying to cut grass for fodder in those circumstances.

I hope that the scheme will be up and running shortly. It is necessary if we are to support these farmers and communities.I hope it will be of some benefit to help them to buy fodder. It will be quite a substantial scheme. There could be a maximum payment of up to €4,800, depending on the amount of fodder lost.

Regarding the management of the River Shannon, as the Leader knows, there is a lot of foot dragging by agencies and there are so many agencies involved. Perhaps the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, who has responsibility for the OPW, could update us on what is happening with the legislation to put in place one agency, not 18 groups, to manage the river, remove the silt where needed and improve its capacity. This area has been badly hit and now with the extra rain it is most difficult. The Leader might consider asking the Minister of State to do this.