Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I need 20 minutes to try to get my message through.

The Minister should meet the sheep men. What is being done to the farming community, which is the backbone of rural Ireland in particular, is not right. These people were not to be found in the tent in Galway but for the past 20 years have been farming and trying to make a living. They have been attacked by Ireland and Europe and in the World Trade Organisation talks. The Minister should do something for the sheep men and women to try to keep them at home and on the land. The Minister should meet them tomorrow and should not leave them outside the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in this cold weather for the next few weeks. He should meet them tomorrow and should then announce the package that is available. Were he to do so, he would be doing the decent thing and I would consider him to be a decent man. He should do so tonight.

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