Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief because the previous three speakers have done an extremely good job of summing up and posing some questions. Well done to the delegates on their collaboration, which was impressive. It is not easy to collaborate different points of view and they all come from different areas. Along the lines of what Senator O'Keeffe said, I do not come from a hill farming area; rather, I come from the valley beside the shore, the land of milk and honey, and I need some education. I would be interested in particular to hear from Mr. Pat Dunne about the reality of being a farmer in that area. To return to Senator O'Keeffe's point, how can we incentivise young farmers to enter or stay in this area? I am one of those people who visit this area on a Sunday and I idolise and enjoy it. I was very taken by Senator Ó Domhnaill's visualisation of what will happen in five to ten years if we do not sit down and consider this. I feel empathy for the delegates because we have two pillars in the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Deenihan, and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Coveney, whom we need to get into a room to engage properly on this. It is pity the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has responsibility for burning policy and that it does not come under the remit of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Scotland, England, Wales and the Northern Ireland have the burning dates that were given but there must have been some reason a decision was made here to designate another period in line with the Wildlife Act. Perhaps that decision was wrong, but I would like the delegates to clarify that. I would welcome the alignment of the periods and I am desperately keen that we encourage the delegates to be careful of our wildlife and to protect all species.

The slide showing the trend in ewe numbers is shocking. In some areas the number of ewes has more than halved. How and why has that happened? Can the delegates educate us about how we can bring those numbers back up to the level pertaining in 2000? What exactly has happened? The decline in the ewe numbers has been dramatic.