Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The confidence supply seems to be very confident. Maybe my Fianna Fáil colleagues are over-confident that the Government is going to do what it says on the tin. Why do we need a review or report? Why has it not been done already? Is the permanent government totally in charge that it would not let it do it? The sooner that changes the better. The Minister can be ag gáire if he likes, but that is the fact. The real Ministers are the lads behind him and beside him and out here on the corridor, there is hardly room for them, they barely fit. The Minister will have to get a new pen to put them in, maybe near the Visitors Gallery. The permanent government is running the show. Do we need another report? I am glad that Deputy Deering said that he is a dairy farmer himself. Everyone knows it and one does not need to be in farming to be aware that it is across the sector, whether it is dairy, grain, potatoes, pigs, any sector, and that is without mentioning Brexit and its repercussions.

Now there is to be a report and a review to fill up some other building's shelves with reports, and more consultants to be hired in to do it. It is farcical. We do the business or we do not. We look after our farmers or we do not. Do not pay lip service to them and say live horse and get grass. Duirt bean liom gur duirt bean lei go fear i Tiobrad Árann with a póca ina léine aige. I do not know if the Minister understands that. There was a saying 40 or 50 years ago, "A woman told me that a woman told her that there is a man in Tipperary with a pocket in his shirt". This is the type of tomfoolery that is going on. Get on and do it and let the farmers who want to work put their shoulders to the wheel a do it and have a buoyant economy. No more reports.

The compliments are flowing across to the Minister of State on everything he knows about farming. Fair dues to him, I would not take that away from him, but if he insisted and anyone in the Fine Gael party would insist that it happen, they should bring the Dublin Jackeens down to see what is going on with the farmers. There was horticulture damage in Tipperary recently and also in east Cork and the Minister of State would not even visit it. He told them they could find some other grant scheme. Live horse and get grass is the adage here, it seems to be the new buzzword. Put it off. There are missing emails, people did not read the emails and a merry-go-round takes place. Then there's Leo's spin team with its €5 million. No bother.

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