Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister will have seen that we submitted several amendments, most of which we withdraw. However, we are not withdrawing this amendment. I am surprised that the Minister of State would not accept it, considering we withdrew many other amendments. The Minister of State might consider some of those other amendments as frivolous but this amendment is vital. The designation of land without consultation is simply not fair. It is something like the security industry and what is happening with evictions. This is similar, just without the violence. Land is designated and the farmer or landowner concerned is not notified and has no chance to make an input. We have been reasonable in our amendment in looking for a 90-day window in which they can reply. We also want public meetings to be held in special areas of conservation. As the Minister of State said, the farmers are custodians of the land. They are good at that role and want to hand on the land. Not only that, they want to enhance and improve the flora, fauna and all the wildlife. They work with gun clubs. A gun club in my area does tremendous work in restocking the grouse and everything else, and in different projects, assisted by the farmers, including the mountain and upland farmers. We are now being seeing upland farmers being victimised.

The Minister of State said he has consulted the farm organisations. Many farm organisations, especially the IFA, do not represent the little people any more. It is fine for the IFA to make commitments to the Minister of State because it does not care about the upland farmers.

See this speech in context