Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Most certainly so. The Minister of State is right. They have been metered and they have been diligently paying. The Minister of State is correct to highlight that fact. They just took it on the chin and paid it. When it comes to the issue of the quotas it will be a dramatic change, it will create competition and it will call for increased efficiencies. The grand people who were there long ago are gone, unfortunately, and the new system will be completely alien to the system under which they operated. However, as a farming community we will work to try to continue but I urge the Minister of State and the senior Minister to try to be grounded in their understanding of what is happening and to try to be grounded - as I know he is - in the issue of the problems that farmers have in adapting to this new change of operating without quotas and the strain and the financial constraints and competition that it will bring upon the community. I thank the Technical Group for sharing time.

See this speech in context