Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I am sorry the Minister is not here to hear me say this, but he should pay the sheep farmers.

He should do so because this has nothing to do with the budget. The money is there and while there are few enough sheep farmers at present, there will be far fewer unless this is done. It has been disastrous that it was not done in the past three or four weeks before matters got out of hand completely.

In the few minutes at my disposal, I wish to discuss a fundamental principle that was broken by the Government when it reduced the area-based payment. Since 1972, under the Treaty of Rome, the disadvantaged areas payment has been one of the most fundamental principles. Everyone is aware that a farmer on 100 acres of dry free-draining soil has a better chance in this life than one on 100 acres of rushes and wetlands. A fundamental principle on which the European Union operated down through the years was that a handicap existed in this regard. I spent years trying to extend this payment to those areas that were duly entitled to receive it and probably have walked more acres than any other Minister in history.

However, six days before travelling to Brussels to start the round of negotiations on the revision of the Common Agricultural Policy, the Minister savaged the area-based payment. How can he stand up to the eurocrats and bureaucrats in Brussels and claim he believes area-based payments are important for every farmer who works on difficult soils in Ireland? They will simply reply that he himself did not believe this to be the case when he cut the payment in the budget. This is a fundamental principle and the Minister should be absolutely ashamed that he allowed himself to be talked into this cut. I do not know what is happening in Agriculture House. Alternatively, is the Minister like the Lone Ranger at the Cabinet table in that he is without a friend in the world? If he does not have a friend at Cabinet, what kind of case can he put when in Brussels? While I hope I am wrong, I discerned the end of area-based payments when the Government introduced this reduction, which merely constitutes the tip of the iceberg.

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