Mr. Thomas Cooney:

On greenways, the IFA calls on the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross, to open up the consultation period. We want all farmers' fears to be addressed. While we support greenways, provided they are done in agreement with landowners, we will not allow them to be railroaded through farms. An adequate compensation package must be provided for farmers. We are informed the greenways will be opened up for public consultation in the coming months. That is our position.

On hedge cutting, our priority is to get the Bill to which Senator Hopkins referred through the Seanad. We will ask all Deputies to support the legislation when it is introduced in the Dáil. The Bill provides that hedge cutting would be permitted in August and controlled burning would be allowed in March. I accept the point on funding for hedge cutting. Our current priority is to have the roads fixed, potholes repaired, etc.

Farmers are passionate about the local improvement scheme. All county councillors and farmers will agree with Deputy Danny Healy-Rae's comments on this issue. Apart from access for family members, farms must also be accessible to milk, cattle and meal lorries. The local improvement scheme is vital in this regard. Members should keep up the good work in seeking to have funding for the scheme increased. We understand the scheme is part of the programme to be announced in 2018. A scheme was included in the programme for Government of the previous Government but it was not good enough. It is no good taking money from a depleted roads budget, as was done under the measure introduced by the then Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar. We want a separate source of funding for the scheme.

We welcome Senator Hopkins's suggestions regarding closed circuit television cameras to monitor littering. The environment committee of the IFA is in the process of drawing up a submission to the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Denis Naughten, on legislative changes to address the issue of fly-tipping. We do not want to facilitate dumping but we need to get the balance right on the issue. We will make some suggestions to the Minister as regards legislative changes to remove the responsibility for fly-tipping from the landowner. At the same time, we do not want to introduce a measure that could be abused.

The environment committee has also done surveys on the diesel price and highlighted price differences of as much as 8 cent to 10 cent between counties. County Kerry was found to be the dearest county in one survey. It is important that farmers shop around or use group purchase schemes and similar approaches.

While progress is being made on delays in payments, as the president noted, that is of no benefit to those who are experiencing delays. We will continue to lobby on this issue.