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

I too am representing farmers in Kerry that have been penalised severely because their commonage was burned. I see that the Minister appealed to farmers and the wider public. How can the farmers who are being penalised be responsible for the wider public? As I understand the commonages that I am dealing with, the farmers did not set the fire. I am very sure about that. One man who has been penalised has a severe handicap. He cannot see. He has received no payment at all yet. He did not get any for Christmas, and he has not got any now. To me, that is repulsive. It is very wrong. In another instance, the man who has been penalised had just come through cancer and several trips to Cork on a bus for radium treatment. He did not set the fire. In fact, his brother rang the fire brigade and did everything possible to quench the fire himself, as did other farmers, who put their own lives in danger. I know they did, because I have been involved in trying to control fires at other times. That is the worst place you could be for your health. Afterwards, one can get pneumonia. Anything is possible after trying to stop a fire. It is very wrong.

One of these mountains is a location where people walk. The public goes to the top of these mountains and enjoys this wonderful amenity. I refer to the Paps Mountains in Rathmore. Some of these farmers have received some money but they have been told they will get no more and their green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS, payments are affected. This is not good for tourism or it will not be if this is to be the way. It seems that farmers are going to be penalised because of the wider public.

I do not know how the fire started but in one of the commonages it definitely came in from outside. The farmers saw the fire coming onto the land but could not stop it. For the farmers to be penalised for the fires that commonage is very high-handed action and I very much feel for them. It is totally wrong. It is like putting someone who did not commit a robbery in jail because he was related or had some connection to the person who did. That is not the way to do business.

I am asking the departmental officials to go back and look at these cases again. They know about the cases from Kerry as we have been making representations on their behalf. They should ensure that this never happens again. The farmers called the fire brigade and did what they could themselves to stop the fire. They did not start it. I am asking the Department to look at what it is doing before it does this to people who had to go without their payments for their Christmas dinner. To hell with ye, the Department seems to say; manage on your own. It will not give the payments to them. That is not fair. I raised this with the Minister the Dáil, as did Deputy Scanlon and others.

It is the wrong way to go about business just because the Green Party or some other group here says we should not burn any lands at all. It is wrong to take this high-handed action against good people. We should remember that these payments are merely compensation for failing to get adequate prices for the stock they are rearing. They are not Christmas gifts. It is not Santa Claus over in Europe sending over these moneys. Farmers are entitled to these payments because they are not being properly paid for the produce they produce. The Department needs to get its methods right and deviate from this action of penalising people 100% where the level of commonage is greater than the rest of the enclosed land they have. It leaves them with nothing. I am glad to have had this opportunity to raise my concerns on behalf of people on commonages and in inland parts of Kerry who have been penalised so heavily.