Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am the son of a farmer. My father was born in 1911 in Banogue, Croom, County Limerick. My mother was born in the 1930s in Cloverfield, Dromkeen. My father's family were Fianna Fáil, my mother's family were Fine Gael and they bred an Independent. We have an independent voice here today. They would be so disappointed in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael because of how much waffle the two parties have given us for a hundred years. We are sick of it. It is the same spin and waffle all the time. They have let the farming community and the parties down. There are so many Independents in this House because the Government has let the farming sector down.

Since I was elected to this Dáil, the Rural Independent Group has raised the beef industry and the four groups that are controlling the market. I have asked the Department to investigate the feeder farms that are supplying these factories monthly or quarterly, not annually. They are owned by the factories and they are paying a lower price than beef farmers pay. We ask the Government not to sell out its heritage or the farming and beef sectors. It is selling us out and it should listen to the Independent Deputies. We are farmers.

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