Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the groups for coming in. I have been at other meetings but I have been dipping in and out and following proceedings. It is great to see unity among all the farm organisations on this. What has been unveiled today is very frightening. It is not just a rural issue. If this happens, it will have huge consequences for the whole of Ireland. We have had incessant rain in Dublin today and I would say there is not a provincial town in Ireland that has not been beset by flash floods today.

The very idea of thinking we could rewet 20% of the country and somehow cope with it is beyond all bounds. It has serious consequences for large towns and cities. If you look at our population, there are thousands of people coming into this country on a weekly basis and this has huge ramifications. God made the land but he only made a limited amount of it. This is something we have to look at very cautiously.

I was struck by one point in the ICSA's opening statement. It states that there is a view in government that this can be achieved on a voluntary basis with appropriate incentives. I am a Government Deputy and I refer people to the comments made by my colleague, the Chairman, Deputy Cahill, who referenced this issue in the Dáil today. He said it would be inconceivable to allow land on a family farm that has been built up over generations and that has been nurtured and cared for to be rewetted. For the people who listen in-----