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

I asked one question there. Do the witnesses think that young fellas are going to carry on where the old fellas left off? The other question is for Mr. McNamara. Why is it that they are focusing their attention on the water that is coming out of the farmers' yards? I will just deal with Kerry. Since 2007 or 2008, at that time, Scartaglin was first in line to get a treatment plan. It was number one on the programme. There has to be pollution, and there is a settlement there. I am not blaming the people of Scartaglin, they are the finest people. Tom Fleming represented the area and both of us fought together and got it up to the top of the list to put a treatment system there. There is not one there yet. Castleisland is just up the road from it, a great town, a thriving town. They have been looking for an extension to their treatment system since 1986. I found documents belonging to my father above in the shed. He was fighting that case at that time. Currow down the road has no treatment facility. They are just three places, but it is replicated all over Kerry and I am sure it is everywhere else. Why is that water different from what the farmers are doing?

They want to get rid of farmers. We have plant-based foods and then we had the Taoiseach boasting a couple of years ago that he was vegan and was not eating meat, and more or less said that he was proud of it. I do not care what he is but he should not be trying to damage our industry and our people who fought hard to keep their place and who have worked so hard back over the years. Like I said, with sweat and blood and no money bar depending on grants. Then they want us to rewet places after fellas breaking their hands and their legs inside in drains trying to flag them and to dry the places, and now they want to block it up. I am not saying that we should get violent or angry or go as bad as the people in the European countries, but we are taking it lying down, whatever way you say it. We are lying down and just rolling over. This is wrong. I worry about anything we try to do. Mr. Canning had great points and I can see that he knows what he is doing and so do all the rest of the witnesses. We are getting no assistance at all, no matter what we do.

There will be a food shortage and maybe they will change their minds then. Until then, unless there is some massive change of direction, we are finished. Young fellas will not take this on to be demonised, villainised and to be told they are causing a climate crisis. The grandest man of all died a few weeks ago. Ray Bates was a climatologist. He said it was fine if people could reduce emissions but he did not believe in it if people were going to be economically hurt and damaged. You can read up on him. He spent 26 years of his life in Denmark. He only had a small column, but he disagreed with the way we are going at it now.