Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We have a real opportunity with CAP to introduce fairness to farming. I will not go over the many years when farmers have been let down. I am speaking particularly about farmers in Mayo and the west of Ireland. A Minister from Donegal should understand what I am speaking about. I am very concerned about the complete breakdown of trust between farmers and the Minister and the Government at this particular time. The fear is palpable among the farmers I have spoken to. What they are afraid of is the derogation that we have been speaking about and the two-tier farming system they see coming down the track. If the Minister is saying to them there is nothing to worry about and everything is guaranteed, then he needs to tell them and communicate with them, the INHFA and others who represent the farmers and who know what they are going through.

A derogation is not a guarantee. The Minister is asking the farmers to trust, and to trust into the future. Farmers with wetlands and peatlands will not be left behind. I will tell the Minister what was said to me this evening. I was told that regardless of Covid or restrictions, farmers throughout the country will march if something is not done to allay their fears and provide a guarantee and give them the respect they need and demand. It is about issues such as not being able to clean a drain, as has been mentioned. The first time I mentioned in Mayo that people would need planning permission to put up a fence, people thought I was absolutely crazy but it very quickly came to fruition. I commend the Independent Group for giving us this opportunity to speak about these issues.

I need to talk to the Minister about the results based environment-agri pilot project, REAP, being brought forward as we speak. The planners were briefed on it the other day. Farmers with commonage and mountain grassland are being excluded. The commonage has been included in all previous agri-environmental schemes. There cannot be any degrading of payments made on commonage and mountain land in the new CAP budget.

As part of the climate action plan, there is an effort to designate even more land and put in place even more severe designations and restrictions. We cannot allow this to happen. There has been no consultation with farmers on how they will work or what levels of compensation will be paid. Serious negotiations must be carried out with the farming bodies before any designation is done. Farmers must be paid for the land that has already been designated. We are not just speaking about the land that has been specifically designated, we are also speaking about the buffer zones around it. We are speaking about the sterilisation of land along the western seaboard. We have seen it happen over the years since the original directive. It has to be halted and debated properly.

Approximately ten years ago in the Mullet Peninsula in Mayo, which is from where I come, there was a designation for the corncrake. Again, this was with very little consultation with farmers in the area. The knock-on effect of this has been huge. At the time, farmers were assured they could continue farming practices as they were. Now they see their dates for cutting have been altered, as have other things, which prevent them from maximising their land. Their land is where they produce their income. I have thought for a long time this raises a real constitutional issue with regard to the right to own property. Farmers own this land and we tell them that they own it but they cannot use it as a factor of productivity to earn an income.

The issue of planning restrictions due to designation has had a catastrophic impact on farm families and rural development. As the Minister knows, many landowners now have to produce an environmental impact statement when applying for a dwelling house, an agricultural shed or even a new fence. How can this make sense? The Minister is asking these same farmers to trust that a derogation will protect them in future. They were told all of the costs would be borne but now we see all of the costs must be borne by the landowners because of designations they never asked for. They were misled about it. The habitats directive designated land.

Government agencies know everything about the designation of land but they have conveniently forgotten the second part of it, whereby the landowner was to have been compensated for the loss of income or the costs incurred in the designation. This has never happened. This has caused trust to break down along the western seaboard. If the Minister takes REAP as the way forward, farmers on designated land will receive no compensation whatsoever for adhering to the restrictions imposed on them because of the designated land. I ask the Minister to go back and speak to the INHFA and listen to it, and speak to the other farming organisations and the farmers themselves to repair the trust that has broken down between the Government and farmers.

I am afraid the buck stops with the Minister. It is the Minister's job to fix it and I am asking him to do it. I know the Minister is only in the job six months but I am asking him to fix this.

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