Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The small farmers who are productive and who have to work twice as hard as the people on the big payments will be kind of insulted by what the Taoiseach just said. One can also be on a small payment and be productive. If one is getting €500,000 one does not have to try quite so hard to be productive.

Under the last round of Common Agricultural Policy payments, according to George Lee – the Taoiseach might remember him, he was the one with the brains in his party - €4.5 billion was spent off-farm. What will be done to prevent that happening again? The money was intended to support farmers but the rich farmer has bought himself an apartment in Croatia, or maybe in Bulgaria, or a second apartment in Dublin, and that money is not going into farming. My proposal would put money in the pockets of the small farmer and if the Government does this, it is to be hoped the next time I visit Castlebar town that I will not have to talk to one shopkeeper after another telling me they are on their knees and that it is not a question of if but when they close.

I suggest the Taoiseach gets out of his bubble, gets into reality, goes back to his town, where he was elected, and wakes up to the fact that he is crippling its people in many ways. This is one way because the small farmer spends every last cent locally. The man getting this payment is sitting beside Lake Garda sipping his cocktail. Who does the Taoiseach support? Him?

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