Mr. Liam O'Keeffe:

We held meetings around the country. There are farmers who are down €70,000 from the time the scheme was introduced because they did not get into it. Many of them are very angry about this. They have tried writing to the Bar Council and to everyone they could think of but got no response. Many of these farmers, big, small and medium, had designated 20% or 25% of their land which could be used as an insurance policy to sell or plant if they needed money to put someone through college or if a member of the family became ill or needed to go into a nursing home. Now that is gone and that has upset many people. In the documentation we received it was made clear that the Government is committed to payment of a fair and proper level of compensation to landowners and land users who are at a financial loss as a result of the designation of this SPA. Land within the SPA or proposed SPA constitutes a Natura 2000 site. People did not object to the designation because they presumed that what they were being told would be honoured. It was not and that is why we are here.