Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentation. The issue of the forgotten farmer was referred to but that was included in the programme for Government. I was there when that was being done although things did not work out in the end. There is a group of farmers who deserve support. I was in Brussels and it was made clear to me that the EU authorities have no objection to including such a category. I note what Deputy Jackie Cahill has said but Fianna Fáil has signed up to an agreement with the Government and the forgotten farmer is included in the programme for Government. I do not think that anyone would object to that being progressed. It is the number of such farmers that is in dispute. A number came out from the Department that I would not agree with and we need to do a root and branch analysis of the number of people involved. I do not think it is anywhere near the 3,600 identified by the Department. I think that is way off the mark. That is the first thing that should be done. If one is talking about the funding for that, not a linear cut, there is a commitment in the programme for Government to provide €150,000 for 100. Obviously there is a few quid there that may fill the holes.

On the issue of designation, I would be on a different side of the argument. I would be above on high bogs whereas the witnesses would be on the mountains. That said, I understand fully what they are saying. Young farmers are being driven away from mountain land. People may laugh at this but soon the dogs will forget how to go up the mountains if we keep going down the road we are on. Young fellas are walking away from the land. It is a trade in itself, the way a farmer goes up the mountain herding sheep and comes down again, bringing the dog with him. Sadly, with the cuts for sheep farmers in mountain areas from Donegal all the way down and even in Wicklow, farmers who have a bit of lowland are putting their sheep onto it and areas are growing wild as a result. We should have learned our lesson on that issue from the Burren in County Clare.

On the question of the appeals office, there is no Deputy here whose phone was not lit up after that court case with the amount of appeals that were going to be resubmitted. To be quite frank about it, I know of appeals that have been won on the first round and they have gone into the appeals board but have been left sitting there. Some farmers have been waiting for two years for their money. That is intolerable and unacceptable. There is a commitment to change that and the farmer organisations, as well as politicians, need to step up to the mark on the issue of the appeals board. It has to change because we cannot have people waiting for two years for money, hanging in there. Some of them will not survive.

I agree with what was said about the areas of natural constraint scheme. If the State wants a farmer to allow flora and fauna to grow on his land, it must pay. If it does not want to pay, then it must let the farmer dig his drains. I know of a farmer in Sligo who had to pay €4,000 to put up a fence although all of the materials only cost €500. That is totally unacceptable. It is another way of making an area of trees and scrub land and driving people out. That is the big agenda, in my opinion, in most of the hill areas and most of the west of Ireland. We are going to be the pawns of the country. The witnesses referred to Cromwell. He said that we should go to Connaught but others are trying to put us out into the sea.

There are 90,000 farmers in receipt of ANC payments. The witnesses referred to 5% but farmers on some of the finest land in Ireland are getting ANC payments as well as farmers on some of the worst land. The witnesses said that the islands get twice the rate of the mainland. The programme for Government contains a commitment to provide €25 million next year which may ensure that nobody goes up or down too much and that should be of help.

Other than that, all I can say to the witnesses is to keep up the work they are doing.

The designation side of it is a nightmare. I have been doing it for ten years and one has to stick at it. Common sense has to prevail. A livelihood cannot be taken from someone because they live in a certain part of the country. Everyone has a right to earn a living and stay in the area they are in and not be driven out because it is made a wilderness.