Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Brown for her presentation. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae has spoken about a lot of the issues that would be of serious concern to the people I represent. I would go back to the programme for Government negotiations about two and a half years ago. I remember being at the table with the then Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Coveney, who I always said was the best negotiator of the whole lot who were there, but we did not agree on the single farm payment that was being distributed to farmers in Ireland where some farmers were getting €150,000 but with more only getting €2,000 to €3,000. It got so heated one night, and we had a lot of late nights, that we both had our hands, or maybe fists, on the table, fighting our own corner. I was always of the belief that no farmer should get more than €50,000. He was totally against that at that time but that is the road that has been travelled. I hope it continues that way and that the money that will be saved will be distributed to the smaller farmer and not percentage wise, because it sounds good on the basis of percentages, but some poor fellow might end up only moving from €2,500 to €2,800. We have to protect the farm families which do not feel protected by the EU at the moment. They are totally dependent on payments for survival. This is an ideal opportunity to set that straight. For many years, the situation faced by those families has been extremely unfair and it has put a lot of them out of business.

We have to look at part-time farmer as well because most of the part-time farmers I know would love to work on the farm all day but they cannot afford to do that. They are forced out to work. They are working late nights and early mornings on the farm and then they go out to work for part, or most, of the day. They have to be protected and we have to reduce the high level of payments to a normal level and try to help as many as possible to survive going forward.

In the past seven or eight months there was little or no compensation for a lot of farmers in dire circumstances where animals were literally dying because of the lack of fodder. There is a need to have available an emergency fund that can be accessed more easily in extreme circumstances. We should also try to get young farmers off the ground and started. A lot of them do not see a future in agriculture and the CAP negotiations are a time to set the record straight.

One other issue is food safety. We must ensure all food being imported into the European Union has the same level of traceability. The Mercosur deal is an extreme worry for Irish agriculture, but it should also be an extreme worry for many other EU countries because traceability is a big issue that needs to be focused on in the future.

Deputy Danny Healy-Rae mentioned Leader programme funding. There is no doubt that rural communities benefited tremendously from it under previous programme and the funding was distributed fairly as best as possible. Sadly, changes were made that were detrimental for rural communities. A lot of new rules and regulations have been put in place that have made it extremely difficult for ordinary voluntary groups to access draw down funds. The programme will end at the end of next year, but it is only now that the money is starting to drift towards communities. Unfortunately, it is out of the hands of the voluntary sector and in those of the political system. It is like a slush fund for Deputies and councillors who are notified before anybody else. They all run out to give the good news to the community, saying they have obtained €100,000 for their constituents, but that is not what Leader funding was meant for. The system was changed and included in the political realm. That was the biggest mistake ever made and the European Union should have stepped in. Alarm bells were ringing that it was the wrong way to travel, but the European Union still allowed it to happen. We often hear in this country that there are certain things we cannot do because of the European Union, that it is instructing us not to do the. It was certainly instructing those involved not to do this, but they still went ahead and did it. They can certainly do things if they want to. I do not agree with the system now in place. As I said it is completely political. It should not have gone political and I urge the delegates to tell the powers that be that this is the case and that we need to address the issue, as well as easing access to funds and cutting back on red tape. Funding from the European Union under the Leader programme is the life and soul of communities.