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

We heard in October that it would be in spring. Now we hear that it will be later in the year. Someone needs to get a grip of this. Does the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine have a scenario in this regard? This is what we need to know as politicians. We need to be able to tell the people out there what the scenario would be with a reduction of 22%. Would it be that you would farm away and maybe sow a hundred trees and that would be the end of it - happy days? What would the scenario be with a 28% reduction? We are working blindfolded at the moment. When we talk to people out there, they are worried. The next thing coming down the line - I am being quite frank about this with all the witnesses - is that if the figure ends up being over 22%, we will see many people outside the gates here. That is what I see on the ground because farmers are sick of what is going on. The farmer is being put forward as the bad person. Everyone must understand that if people in the cities can do sweet damn all about sorting out the climate problem but that it is the farmers we would want to be nice to because it is they who will be the solution to the problem. That message needs to go out there rather than what is heard in the media about the farmer, which is just propaganda. It is not acceptable, and we will not accept it. Rural Ireland has to be stood up for. It is our land, our private property, in our country that will help the person who is able to do nothing about the climate problem. Farmers should be treated with respect, not like criminals.