Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In effect, that is discriminating against small farmers. If Mr. Egan was a small farmer and knew anything about farming 40 or 50 acres, he would know that the reason for buying a meal bin is to keep rats away from the place. Second, he would know that farmers are putting 3 tonnes into small meal bins. Some people have meal bins that take 1 tonne or 780 kg because that is good farming practice. The only difference between a 10-tonne structure and a 3-tonne structure is that the base is not as big in the second case. If someone bothered to go out and look, that person would see that the system for putting the structure in is the dead same in both cases. I do not know how Mr. Egan can come in here and say to me that a 10-tonne bin qualifies but a 3-tonne bin does not. My God, the witnesses need to go out on site and look at what farmers are doing. Are they trying to promote ranchers with this focus on 10-tonne bins? I do not see small farmers having 10-tonne bins. They all have bins taking 2, 3, 4 or, at the most, 5 tonnes. I urge the witnesses to go out urgently and look at what is happening on farms.

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