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

I also commend Deputies McConalogue and Cahill, Senator Paul Daly and the entire agriculture team at Fianna Fáil on bringing forward this Private Members' motion and standing up for the suckler farmer. In my constituency we have our own anthem composed by the famous Saw Doctors called "N17". The song is about emigration among the people of north Galway on their way to Shannon Airport. One of the lines of the song is "Stone walls and the grass is green", and the fields are small in north Galway. This is exactly why we have the largest suckler herd in the country. We have 87,000 suckler cows and 13,500 farmers but we are down 3.5%.

The Minister has heard all night this is not just about my constituency. The issue goes from Donegal all the way down to Cork and it goes all the way over as far as Longford. The average income is approximately €13,000 per annum. As Deputy Scanlon has said, these people have to work outside the home. This is not their only industry and they are barely living on subsistence. As Deputy Fitzmaurice said earlier, we need a lower limit and this is what Deputy McConalogue has brought before the House this evening.

The Minister said he likes to look forward and so do I. I do not like to look back. However, I need to remind the Minister that the Taoiseach has failed utterly to defend beef farmers and he broke the promise he made at a recent IFA annual general meeting, where he stated the Government would have the farmers' backs. Once again it was all spin and no delivery. Unless the EU and the Government move quickly to inject confidence into the suckler sector, farmers will face exit from the sector and it will accelerate financial consequences far beyond the farmers' gates.

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