Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We can deal with that on another day through pre-legislative scrutiny. There are a few issues concerning the legislation that need to be addressed.

I do not know how, but they need to be dealt with.

Since, like me, he lives in the west, I think the Minister of State, Deputy Ring, would agree that there is a fair spend on heritage. However, most of the people who conserve the heritage believe that the role of the Department is a totally negative one of "don'ts", rather than positively working with farmers on how to preserve the heritage. What extra resources would be required so that instead of the Department being negative and reactive on natural heritage, which has caused a lot of anger among farmers and rural people, it can work positively with rural communities which have preserved the heritage we all care about and which care about it deeply? Can the Minister of State give some indication of how the Department intends to identify the resources that would be needed in order to change its outlook from seeming to be more concerned about keeping Europe at bay than preserving the heritage in partnership with landowners, who have created the incredible heritage we have? If one travels around Mayo, Galway, Donegal, Cork or Kerry, huge distrust relating to conservation has built up between authority and landowners. We will never conserve if we do not have buy-in and positive relationships.

Has a consensus been achieved between the people who cut bogs and the Department on a way forward to ensure that traditional rights are recognised and preserved? This is about more than money. There seems to be an attitude in the Department that it is all about money. I know hill farmers, as will the Minister of State, who are more concerned about having sheep than they are about making any profit from them. No matter what monetary compensation they are given, they would prefer to keep the animals.

Finally, the regulations under which the habitats directive operates in Ireland - dating back to 1997 - says that where the traditional output of a farmer is impacted by a designation, and where they are not in an agri-environmental scheme, they should get direct compensation from the Department. I understand that this is not currently in operation. I have no doubt that a new brush sweeps everything clean. Perhaps the Deputy could outline when he will reinstate the legislative provision, which is there in law, for compensation if something a farmer had traditionally been doing is interfered with by the designation of an SAC, SPA, NHA or any other of these many designations.