Mr. Liam Broderick:

If I could I add to that, Deputy Kerrane is talking about this particular scheme and there was an interview last week on Midlands 103 on which it was stated that compensation is not really the way forward. I actually agree with that. The scheme is wonderful and needs to be there in the particular year we are having this year but on an ongoing basis, we have the longest and largest river in Ireland draining a quarter of the country and not one shovelful of muck has been taken out of it in more than 100 years. That just beggars belief in a time when we are facing climate change. We have seen what climate change and all that rain falling has done in Cork, Wicklow, Wexford and various places around the country. It was happening with us three months ago, before all of this happened. I am not saying there is not any point to it, we very much welcome the scheme, but there is a bigger picture that needs to be addressed.

The bigger picture is, what will happen to every river in Ireland during climate change? What will happen to our river? We are seeing the effects of it. We are the people who are having water dumped in on us but that will be happening all over the country. We are looking around at everyone here as members of the agriculture committee but do they have a plan? Are they formulating a plan? Will they take this forward as a committee to help the whole country to come along and be able to decide that we are an agricultural country and that there is an issue to be decided? There is a thing called food security and the question is whether we will be able to supply that food to the rest of the world, where people are not able to supply food. We are a country that can produce food but we will not be able to do that if we are in a situation of climate change that is forcing water. As a matter of fact, Deputy Cahill asked a question in the Dáil a fortnight ago about rivers being drained. Deputy Mattie McGrath asked the same question and I was watching that debate. What I am saying is there has to be a platform and we are looking at the committee members as a group to represent the farmers of Ireland, that is, to represent us, to come up with that plan and to take it forward.

Deputy Ring is not present but over 100 years ago we had the Irish National Land League organised by Michael Davitt and it was looking for the three Fs, namely, free sale, fair rent and fixity of tenure. For a lot of farmers in this country, where do they stand with those three things now? Do they have the opportunity for free sale now? If they are tied into a contract and the amount of people producing broccoli in Ireland is down to six and the supermarkets are telling them this is the price they are going to pay, where is the fair price then? Milk farmers are being asked to decide to take the money that is being offered and to lengthen it out to a year. I am not necessarily au fait with everything but I listen to a lot of farming discussions and programmes and these are the things I am asked about. A lot of things are happening in farming that should be happening but are not. An overall plan has to be put together and to me, the Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine is where it should be coming from. Coming back to our situation we are only looking for two Fs. I have to be careful how I hold up my fingers but our two are very simple. We want to be free from floods and second, we want to have freedom to farm. We cannot be free to farm if we are forever getting water and we have a river that is full of muck and nothing is being taken out to help the flow of the river.