Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have questions on the suckler cow. These farmers are now described as "hobby farmers". I know what they have to go through because we do it ourselves. Between calving cows in the middle of the night, losing calves and all that goes with it, breeding them and trying to have the right bulls, these suckler cow farmers are not even breaking even now. That is the gospel truth. They come to marts in Macroom, Kenmare, Cahirciveen, Milltown and Castleisland. They do such a good job. They rear the cattle and feed them to the highest standards. They go home with their tails between their legs because when they do up their figures, they are not balancing the books. I appeal to the Minister to do something to ensure that these fellows can keep their operations because if they get out of them, they will not go back to them. The Minister should remember that. If they get out of cows and reduce their numbers, they will not go back. They are sending the beef, as we know, up the country, where they are fattened and moved into the factories. The supply comes from all along the west coast, although maybe some people up here might not understand or realise it. The fact is the suckler cow can be found all along to the west coast but the sector is under immense pressure. We are not telling lies; it is the truth. It was written the other day that these are "hobby farmers" and that will not continue.

We have spoken about the hen harrier before. If the Minister cannot pay for a proper compensation scheme and cannot compensate these farmers, just forget about it and disband it. As I said before, it is like wanting to rob people's houses or beat up old people. It is very bad. It is daylight robbery to reduce the value of a person's farm, whether a man or a woman. I appeal to the Minister to forget about it if he cannot pay them. He should pay as he goes and if he does not pay, do not go.

There is another section of farmers which I think the Minister knows about. They are farmers who are being deprived of their payments this year because commonages were burned. I know the people who are involved in, and who own, the commonages. They fought hard to stop the fires and called the fire brigade but lo and behold, all their payments are held up and that is not fair. In one case, the fire did not start on their land and they do not know how it started. In other cases, they had nothing to do with it. I appeal to the Minister to look at this issue because two things will happen. Farmers will become very annoyed if they have people walking through their land and they are not sure whether a fire will start. What will they do? They will make sure by locking the gate and keeping them out. Kerry is a tourist county. It will have very serious repercussions for the tourism industry if farmers, such as these, are denied their payments. I ask the Minister to look at this issue. What has happened is wrong but it can be put right. It is like arresting a fellow for robbing the pub in the village but the fellow was not in the village at all that night. It imposes 100% penalties on these people and takes their payments. Some of these people had nothing for Christmas. They were expecting a few bob for Christmas but they got nothing. That is God's gospel truth.

There is another anomaly that has affected a good few people with the targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, TAMS, payments, where one is entitled to get a certain amount. I will give an example of a person who purchased a vacuum slurry tank. Since he borrowed the money from a finance company, a hire purchase and leasing company, he will not get his grant. Some €26,000 or €27,000 out of the €40,000 has gone on this. He will get no grant. He was entitled to €10,500. He did not understand it and the leasing company should have told him. It is very wrong when this happens to a family like this. These are bad times on many farms. They were depending on this money to keep them going. They borrowed from a leasing company rather than a bank and the tanker is in the leasing company's name. They did not understand that and were not made aware of it by the leasing company. There are several such cases.

They are paying for the tanker every month, but they will not get their grant because of this simple but unfortunate anomaly. I ask the Minister to do something to ensure that this does not happen again and that awareness is raised among the farming fraternity that they are not to do that. However, some leeway or assistance should be given to the people who find themselves in this unfortunate position.