Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Butler for changing slots with me. We should all remember why we are here. We are here because Deputy McConalogue has us here. We had a motion in the House on Holy Thursday, when the House was virtually empty apart from the Minister, the Minister of State and ourselves. There was little interest in this. However, Deputy McConalogue persisted and brought the matter back before the House this evening. I am delighted the motion is before the House.

This evening is not about climate change or forestry. It is about action now for farmers who are struggling throughout the country. We should forget some of the nonsense that has been spoken this evening. We need to focus on what we need to do. Several speakers have said what we need to do. We need to get the GLAS payments that are overdue paid. We need to ease off on the inspections. We need to ensure that the subsidy for transport is revisited. We need to get that done straight away.

The Minister has said he has been speaking to the banks, or at least those remarks were in his press release. That needs to be done as well. Where necessary, we also need to get the short-term loans at a percentage that will be acceptable to the farming community. Let us deal with what we need to deal with this evening. We will have long days to talk about climate change and forestry, but let us try to get help to those farmers who are in the Gallery this evening as well as the farmers I represent. Let us get farmers off the hook now. We should give them a little support.

By the way, I spoke to one farmer yesterday. He asked me to tell everyone to stop saying that farmers are suffering from mental health issues at the moment. He said they are not but that they are deeply stressed and concerned and that their families are concerned as well. He reckons if farmers get a little help they will be able to get over this crisis. There may be issues here or there of over-stocking but that is not the major problem.

I want everyone, including the Minister and the Minister of State, to dwell on the issue now. I am referring to the emergency that must be dealt with in the coming days. If we get over that, then I have every confidence in the farming community to rally and make Irish agriculture great again if there is some improvement in the weather.

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