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

We have a major problem where those who own the land and who farmed it for many years have certain restrictions put on them. If they must go down a route of getting an appropriate assessment, screening out or whatever, that will cost money. We are dealing with farmers who are living on less than half the average industrial wage. Those obstacles put in front of them will bring about an Ireland in which, whether the Department wishes it or otherwise, it will not be good, that is, an Ireland where one will see a certain amount of land abandonment. Whether we like it or not, we come from a managed landscape. When they took the ewe or, as we saw in the Burren, the cow off the hill, it was detrimental to it. One must work with those communities to iron out those issues. I refer not only to the National Parks and Wildlife Service. It will involve the planning authorities as well. If people keep objecting to someone putting up a fence to keep in his or her sheep or someone who wants a relocation bog for the betterment of the overall habitats directive, one should bear in mind one still is dealing with people in their own private property. It is like a dog, in that if one keeps pulling its tail, it will bite.