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

It is getting harder and harder for farmers to acquire land, even as it is. There are people around now looking at lands - I have direct proof of this - and asking if certain places are suitable for the hen harrier or to be designated for the hen harrier. We all know what that means. If your lands are designated for the hen harrier, you cannot plant them for forestry. You will not be allowed. I see this is as another attempt, another block, to condense the amount of land farmers can acquire. The Minister said a while ago that farmers will be more involved. How can they be more involved when they cannot buy any more land? You cannot just make land. God made that, whether people like it or not, and we cannot make any more of it, but the Minister said that farmers will be more involved, even though that land will be tighter to get now because of this. Will he explain how farmers will be more involved?