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

I thank all those who have travelled from Donegal, Kerry and Cork this evening to sit in this Chamber and watch the proceedings. The Minister said he had to represent people and to listen to the most vulnerable. I say to him, "Listen to the most vulnerable - they are sitting here". There are between 250 and 350 affected farms and if the Minister wants to listen to the most vulnerable, we should ask them if they want a loan or compensation. The people who have come before us cannot afford to go before a financial institution. It is four years since they had reasonable accounts and they do not have repayment capacity at this moment in time. This is because they have no crop, they yielded nothing and have nothing to sell and this means they cannot put anything down on a sheet of paper. I know what I am talking about as I am a financial adviser and I sat in front of farmers for 20-odd years when they came in to look for term loans for stock. The first thing one looked for was repayment capacity and Deputy Fitzmaurice is right that there are no sales. Nothing came in that envelope and the farmers sitting in our Gallery this evening have nothing to show. In recent years they have been down on the value of their grain or their crop was weather hampered.

We are asking the Minister to support the tillage sector in the same way he asked our colleague to support the potato and vegetable industry. We ask him to come behind us and support the motion but his counter-motion rubbishes ours and rubbishes the fact that farmers cannot step up to the mark. The Minister, his party and the handful of Independents who support them have decided to weed out the tillage sector in this country and to reduce it. The Minister, the Government and the Independents do not have the right to do that. We are looking for €4 million in compensation this evening.

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