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

I thank all the witnesses and the organisations here, especially Macra na Feirme. It is grand to see young farmers here who are concerned and who hope they can live out their lives farming. At one time it used to be a privilege, an honour and an advantage when the farm was given to the young fella that inherited the farm. It was an advantage for a long time but now it is a millstone around their necks. If they were to do what their fathers who handed it down to them, did, there is a fair weight on their shoulders to do the same thing in 30 or 40 years' time when they hand it down to their sons or daughters. That is the worry I have when you hear this kind of carry on about rewetting lands after farmers in our side of the country anyway, including myself, got grants to drain places. I broke my leg in a drain when a stone fell in on top of it, so I know what it is. I boil with temper when I hear all this carry on is going to happen. The result of this could be that farmers will be forced to carry this out. Like the young fellow said earlier, we will be wondering about what the next fella is doing. I could bring you to my own field. The upper part of the field might be drained to catch the water.

Where will the line be drawn? In fields like that, are we going to rip them asunder? Where we have been cutting silage for many years now, we will only have half the field left. It could be different on better land but I have to talk about my side of the country. I am on the other side of the hill from Mr. Kelleher. I took the presenter from Radio Kerry to an elevated point in Kilgarvan and I asked him what he made of what he could see. In places like Kilgarvan - it is replicated all around south Kerry, down into Ballingarry, which is north-west Cork, and over the other hill into south-west Cork - all you have are a few fields maybe in one corner of the place and the rest of it is all bushes, bog, rock and every kind of misfortune you could ever think of. There are places you could not even walk through. I asked him how much of that ground was being fertilised. Ground that is green is peaty ground. It is black ground as well call it. It is reclaimed ground. Where is the line going to be drawn here? Those fellas have enough land and are sequestering carbon already. It is like giving medicine to some fella before the doctor comes. We are not being told what we are already sequestering. Before we go one step further, that is what should happen. We should be told what we are sequestering.

We have fellas who will not let us cut hedges along the road. They say we are hurting the wildlife, the birds or whatever, but there is another side to the ditch. We are not insisting that the hedges have to be cut there. These are the kind of things-----