Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am concluding now. He insulted the snails by calling them slugs, but both have a very important role to play in biodiversity. I praise the directives that have now managed to allow us to reintroduce species that had been eradicated in the past by incorrect application of agricultural methods. I praise the grant assistance to the farming community to reintroduce the corncrakes. I praise the reintroduction of the hen harriers in Wicklow, and the eagles we bring in from Scotland. However, the negative of that is that we are losing disproportionate numbers of our wildlife by incorrect agricultural processes, i.e. the cyanide poisoning of carcasses to kill off foxes, which in turn is killing off these rare species.

In the past, DDT was one of the major agricultural killers. There is a balance to be struck. Farmers have got to be praised when they are operating to the rules. Farmers who put the cyanide on the carcasses, which is illegal, should never be praised.