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

I agree with the Minister of State. He said that some crowd said we had a romantic notion about planting trees on blanket bog. I went through bogs with tractors and machines, and I can think of more romantic places to be. In one minute, you could be swallowed, and you would be trying to get up from underneath and to get out of the machine before it was covered up. There is a big difference. Those people do not really know what they are talking about, although they have a case for not planting that type of bog. We know it as black ground. There is a big difference. They need to be educated in that regard. That ground could be planted.

I have the same concerns as Deputy Aird about planting green ground, good ground or arable ground, and I have the same concerns about putting solar panels on it. There must be some regulation. At the end of the day, what agriculture is about, for me and many others, is food security. We cannot compromise that. I think that getting rid of 600 or 700 cows in some places just to put in solar panels is criminal, to be honest. The Minister of State said that it is a landowner’s right. However, they would never have left farming, whether dairying or otherwise, if they were being paid properly for their produce.