Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the members of the IFA, especially our Kerry members. They would not be here except that farmers are in trouble. We all knew it, along with the Minister, last November. In early November many farmers had used half their feed. It is no good telling us we could not know what would happen when half their feed had been used at that time. We all knew what was going to happen. We must stop going backwards.

I thank Deputy McConalogue for bringing forward this very important motion, which contains very laudable elements. I will not get around in a minute and a half to all of them. I ask the Minister to provide a subsidy for farmers in order to provide meal. I ask the Minister to pay farmers all the grants they are owed. Many of these are not being paid at all and farmers are being fined for different things. They are struggling and their minds are gone. I ask the Minister to pay farmers in real trouble in advance so as to ensure they can continue in farming. This is a crisis and their backs are to the wall. The Minister and the Government must do something about this. The Minister gave back €106 million to the Exchequer in 2016 and over €70 million last year. The Minister should not give back a penny this year and give it instead to the farmers out there in Kerry and west Cork. There is only a distance of 20 miles between us. The Minister knows those farmers are in trouble and he should do something about it. I am asking the Minister again about this. He should not forget those farmers as he is the Minister now.

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