Mr. Dermot Kelleher:

-----based on where he came from. Whether it is crag, mountain, good land, bad land, limestone, upland or low land, that is where he has been born and reared, and that is all he would have. This was my argument about this. The Deputy went on with this ineligibility and marginal land. Marginal land is grand if one has 50 or 60 acres of good land with just a corner of marginal land. If one has been born in a place in west Cork, south Kerry, Ballymakeery or somewhere and one is born in a place that has 60 of 70 acres of marginal land then that is all one has. So, one cannot call it marginal land because it is all one has. I have spent my life fighting for that principle. Especially the more biodiverse land is now, then the more eligible it should be. The Government wants biodiversity and habitats but then there is a lad drawing red circles around these places trying to make them ineligible. One hand must know what the other hand is doing. I totally agree with what was said by Deputy Fitzmaurice, in that no farmer should be discriminated against based on where he came from or what land he was born into.

As for different farming practices and having the same farming practices all over the country, that is not correct either because a farmer with 200 or 300 acres in County Meath or in the Golden Vale will have very different farming practices from somebody with a 100 acres on top of a mountain out west around Dingle, back around west Cork or somewhere who is trying to scrape a living from between rocks and bushes. Yet the Department is trying to tell him that his land is not eligible any more. I know young fellows who had the same amount of stock as their father and grandfather yet they were told that their lands were ineligible, which is totally wrong. The more biodiverse land is then the more eligible it should be.