Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The planners are the people who prepare plans for farmers and the Department liaises with them. Last Friday evening they got emails stating that the riparian zone was being cut to 1 ha. I welcome what the Minister and the Taoiseach have said today to clarify that it is staying as it is, which will stop a lot of confusion.

The other issue that needs to be looked at is the fact that if a farmer has 100 or 120 acres, this is okay. However, for smaller farmers in the west of Ireland and many other parts of Ireland, it is more difficult. When those farmers were in the previous scheme - the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme - they might have received €3,500 or €4,000. They did not get the full scheme payment because they did not have enough area to do so, but some of those farmers are down on money with the new system. I ask for flexibility for that group of farmers.

Also, there is a thing in it that we never in our lives were told to do. There is a part in it whereby farmers will cut half of a field if there are rushes in it and leave the other half. For God's sake, something needs to change so that farmers can cut the full field of rushes.

See this speech in context