Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to focus my attention on a couple of issues. I thank the Minister for what he has done on expanding the scale of the ACRE scheme to allow all farmers, some 46,000 of them who sought to be part of it, to participate versus the initial budgeted position of about 30,000. That is welcome to farmers who want to farm sustainably, raise their families and have a meaningful impact and live in a sustainable way. I thank the Minister for making that happen.

There are two issues that matter to me in County Clare from an agricultural perspective. The Burren Life project with which the Minister is familiar and I am sure Senator Garvey will expand on it when she gets an opportunity, involves a group of farmers who came together and devised a scheme which was given the imprimatur of the Department at the time and was recognised by Europe as a really sustainable model. They bought into it. Their actions and the plan they put in place have ensured that not only is farming a sustainable practice is such an iconic landscape but the model they put in place has ensured that the area is managed in such a careful way that is in sympathy with the environment. It respects the environment in such an important way and has ensured that they have a viable income. The change in the new scheme has, in my view and in the view of the farmers in the region, a detrimental impact. It takes a lot from a small number, and gives a little to many others. The benefit to those who will benefit is meaningless. Those that will lose, will lose heavily. It will take from the actions they have put in place. It will undermine the process that is there. It has the potential to be really damaging to the overall environment of the Burren region, which is a unique landscape.