Mr. Liam Hanrahan:

To follow on from Mr. Keane on the food security point of view, we farm in west Clare where there is a large amount of low lying flat land, including peatland. Mr. Keane alluded to the area that may be taken out of farming productivity but the amount of land that would be affected would be far greater. The surrounding lands cannot but be affected by this, and that also has to be taken into account. It is easy enough to multiply €1 billion by whatever you like. The potential to put farmers out of business here is very serious, including farmers who do not sign up.

The bill will have an extremely serious impact on rural populations.