Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)

We will take no lectures or lessons from Deputy Treacy about the merits of Fianna Fáil and, as Deputy Coonan articulated, the closure of the sugar industry by a series of Fianna Fáil agriculture Ministers.

I am disappointed, for example, that the two Independent Deputies who represent rural constituencies have not seen fit to attend at all, namely Deputy Healy-Rae and Deputy Lowry, the latter of whom obviously would have an interest in the points made on local employment by Deputy Tom Hayes.

This has been a bad week for farmers. Most Fianna Fáil Deputies refused to address the issue at the heart of this debate about the farm waste management scheme. Let me digress and take the same liberty for a moment. It has been a bad week for young farmers. Some 92% of farm holdings are held by persons who are over 35 years and in one fell swoop the three-legged stool there to encourage land mobility — installation aid, the early retirement scheme and stamp duty exemption — has been cropped to a one-legged stool that will collapse in terms of transferring land to young farmers.

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