James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

We are curtailed by time. There are many elderly people in the country who have been encouraged to let younger people on the land or who have let their land. Are they being described in 8(b), which states, "a substantial part of the working day of the person requiring care services or his or her partner was regularly and consistently applied to the farming of the farm"? What interval does this relate to?

This legislation is very loose and unworkable and smacks of the bad old days of feudalism. It is unconscionable that anybody would even think of putting it down on paper. It beggars belief and will be utterly opposed.

See this speech in context