Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

He is sharing it with me. I would like to speak briefly on one sector which is close to my heart which is agriculture. Coming from east Galway, agriculture plays a prominent role in our mainstay. While agriculture has always been proven to be our mainstay as a nation in recessionary times such as those we have just weathered, it is far from a simple pursuit for many of our farmers, be they young or old. In fact, I would go as far as to say that farming has become a complex, onerous, anxious and often unrewarding business which, unfortunately, has become synonymous with slavishly hard work, high regulation from vested interests, low prices due to middle interests, high debt and a crushing lack of understanding from other sectors which fail to recognise the worth of agriculture to our economy. All of this is compounded by indebtedness to banks which simply pursue the bottom line and impoverish farming families who do not get a fair return for their hard work, with many of them living below the poverty line despite working 18 hours a day. Little wonder that many from farming communities submerged in flood waters due to bad planning question the merits of continuing to slave day in, day out with little reward. They are left to find that, at the end of their days, their farms are not safe from the banks, EU tariffs and fines, or the Revenue or find, perhaps, if they are fortunate enough to live long enough they have to trade it all for a bed in a nursing home.

I will focus especially on the rural social scheme, RSS. Currently in east Galway we have 150 people waiting to go on the rural social scheme. Most of them are either in receipt of farm assist or jobseeker's payments. It would cost an additional €22.50 per week to bring a person who is in receipt of farm assist or jobseeker's payments on to the rural social scheme. It would cost the State €3,375 per week to bring those 150 people within the scheme. On an average annual income, that will cost us €175,000. We could ask what is the benefit to the person. It gives them an income. It puts them back in the PRSI system and takes them off the live register. Most important, however, it gives them a sense of self-worth.

Living in rural Ireland, when the floods are rising around you, the days are long and the nights are very long, one has very little to do. Therefore, one has to look forward to doing something. Therein lies the value of the RSS. That is its value to the person. That is the value of the €175,000. What is the benefit to the community? The benefit to the community is that those people, believe it or not, are part of the town enhancement schemes. They are part of the Tidy Towns committees and clubs. They are the people who get involved in coaching and marking the pitches. These are the people that partake in the care and repair programme, a good example of which is to be found in Glenamaddy. They are part of the heritage project which is Portumna Workhouse and which could not have formed without them. That is what they do for communities, for the price of €3,375 per week. There are only 2,600 people on the waiting list nationally. There is a value to the person and a value to the community.

I was disappointed earlier today when the Minister spoke. He left out a few kernel parts about which I am passionate. He left out flooding and drainage. Let us be fair about it. The House will hear me harp on about this until the waters go but at this time, as I stand in this House, east Galway remains submerged. A lot of productive farmland is still under water. Many farmers are selling off their cows. They are realistic farmers, because at this stage they do not have grass for them and they will not have any fodder next year.

He also failed to touch on farm families. It is not an individual we talk about when we talk about agriculture. The whole family is involved in it. Therefore, we have to look at the wife, the children, older persons and everyone else as well. Farm safety did not come up today either even though we have an awful lot of accidents on farms.

I was glad to see Deputy Durkan hit on the issue of special areas of conservation. Many of the lands on the banks of the Shannon are designated special areas of conservation, with no compensation under the latest scheme. Many in east Galway are scratching their heads about that one. Does the House know what else the Minister failed to touch on? He failed to touch on the young farmer. I am just pulling out my notes because, while I can talk a lot ad lib, I need a little support as well. Delayed payments for our young farmers is undermining those looking to start in farming. The young farmers scheme was designed to encourage more young people into farming. However, huge delays in payments issuing under the young farmers scheme is leading to a lot of anger on the ground among the farmers involved.

Under the basic farm payment scheme, most farmers started receiving their payments last October. The Minister referred to this. Some young farmers only started getting the payment in December. Seven months later, the Department has almost got through all the transactions. We should be trying to embrace the younger community and encouraging them to stay on the land, but we are not really working with them. Those under 40 who have done all their certificates and courses are the people we need to keep on the land. We have to hand on the tradition and the ideas of rural Ireland to them. Believe it or not, people outside rural Ireland do not realise the value farming brings to the community. It puts billions back into the community.

Let us consider what is happening in the United Kingdom in the near future. What effect will this have on those of us in rural Ireland? We have to stand up and smell the heather in all of this.

The hands of the farmers are tied when it comes to banking. We are tying them with bureaucracy and tying them with the banks. It is time for the Government and all of us in the Chamber to step up and give support on both sides to the farmers. We have to work with the banks and encourage the freeing up of funds as well as working with the lines of bureaucracy that are tying up the farmers.

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