Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We all appreciate the sheep industry is an important industry in its own right and I can assure those present that it is important also in the midlands because some of them might be getting mixed up. Sheep are important as part of a mixed farming enterprise and they play a pivotal role in grassland and pasture management and environmental enhancement. I have a brother involved in the industry but none of my nieces or nephews are too interested in it because it is not attractive. Sheep farming is labour intensive, which is lost on many people. The hole in the bucket for sheep farmers is the failure to have their entity specifically identified as such within the CAP reform structure and to have a specific payment for them. I do not ever fear a return to the late 1980s and early 1990s when Ireland had 5 million sheep. Everyone in the place had a sheep, including those who did not know the difference between a sheep and a cat. We do not want that again. I can recall what happened. Land was taken willy nilly just to get the sheep. That is a road to nowhere. We were up that road and we are now on a road to sustainability and we are trying to ensure that. That is why any aid that is secured must be targeted. It should be targeted at the flock. It is no use having a flock owner with 10,000 sheep. In the west, in particular, there has to be a cut-off point. This takes a little thinking. There is no use diving in, being halfway across the pool and drowning. We have to think about this and work it out properly. I have no choice to support this because there are significant sheep farmers around Ballynacargy where I come from.