Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted that the Minister is making an announcement. That has been his trait as Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. He is the Minister for the industry, but he forgets that to have a food industry, we need farmers and a Minister for farming in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

What the Minister of State did not get to points to most of the difficulties with this issue. Even getting the agreement of 50% of active farmers on a commonage will be absolutely impossible, as one is talking about hundreds of people. The Department has not even defined what the commonage plan will look like and what the minimum requirements will be. Second, it is forcing the people concerned to use one single adviser to get agreement. The practicalities would surely instruct and guide the Minister of State that this will be impossible. He knows this because he has been operating in rural Ireland for a long time. No matter how great GLAS is - it might be the best thing since sliced bread - if they do not get agreement, they cannot join GLAS. The irony of those who have cared for the environment, the mountains and the hills for generations being excluded from a scheme that aims to care for the environment is rich.

That is the difficulty and why many decent people are out protesting and attending protest meetings. It is not hysteria. It is a genuine concern and worry that people will be excluded from incomes that will keep them on the land and in rural areas. Otherwise, they will leave and we will be left with all of the problems identified. Why is the Welsh proposal so different from the Irish one? It is a country with a similar topography, yet the Welsh proposals are completely different. Is it a case of us once again gold-plating European legislation to be the good boys while not reflecting on the consequences for Irish citizens?

We have a very small window in order to engage with this issue. I acknowledge that some changes have been made to stocking rates in the past few weeks. The figure of 50% simply will not work and because it will not, the rural development programme about which the Minister of State speaks will not attain its achievements, will not secure the buy-in the Government needs for it to attain its achievements and will not get support on the ground. This will affect the programme and our standing in Europe. No matter how good the new Commissioner will be, this will not help. I, therefore, ask the Minister of State for a small dose of sense and reason. I ask him to explain to his civil servants who are driving this issue that it will not work and that they must go back to the drawing board to stop what will happen.

The Minister will pit neighbour against neighbour, brother against brother, and we do not want to go down that road again.

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