Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael)
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The request is that, rather than the €50 per farmer, the Department would increase the payment under the sheep welfare scheme.

The Minister has more or less dealt with the issue of GLAS. He mentioned the option that farmers on AEOS had to move to GLAS, but the reality now under AEOS 3 is that farmers are leaving it and will probably be three years without getting a payment under a scheme or something similar. There are also new farmers who are not getting any GLAS payments. Is there a possibility to reopen GLAS in a limited fashion or do something similar with this balancing act the Department is doing? Again, this would be in the interests of fairness.

Perhaps this next issue is very broad. Freshwater pearl mussels are the bane of my life. I do not think they are very rare at all. Every time we go to build a road or bridge in County Mayo we are stopped because of freshwater pearl mussels. Fifty per cent of our land is designated. I think wild mushrooms are now rarer than freshwater pearl mussels because the latter are all over the county. Money is being given for this scheme that is in place, which I presume is co-funded by Europe along with the Government. Is the trade-off that we stick with these designations and we cannot build bridges or roads? Is this really what this money is about? Many people listening in who live in urban areas, when they think of designated land, tend to think it is virgin land or something. We have a national primary road either side of which is designated. The road itself is in a designated area, so we cannot move and are being crippled all the time. Something must be done, and I will keep doing whatever I must do to try to change this along the western seaboard, particularly in County Mayo. Many of us will have to come together or else rural Ireland is going nowhere. It does not matter how much money we pump into Leader or this, that and the other; if we cannot get a road or bridge built, where are we going? What is the situation in respect of the freshwater pearl mussel? Can the Minister give me a little more information about it? As I said, they are as common as muck in Mayo. I was told not so many years ago that fellas used to come over from Scotland and take them out of the river and no one knew what they were. I also read somewhere, as my atennae are raised, that a freshwater pearl mussel fetched something like €700,000, so perhaps we should be all in the rivers looking for them. What I am saying is that people want to be responsible-----