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

First, on a personal level, I wish the Taoiseach well. During the week, I outlined that although I do not have a problem with some people in Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil, I do have a problem with some of the agenda that is being pushed in this country at the moment. I am not a person who is negative about everything. During the week, as the Taoiseach is well aware, I welcomed how the Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, brought in a sewage scheme for towns that had no Irish Water and brought in the grant for refurbishment of rural houses. In fairness to the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, she helped with the cancer hospital in Galway and I welcome that. However, I believe there is a big problem with the way this country is going because decisions that are being made are pulverising and decimating certain aspects of rural Ireland and we will not stand for that. It will cause abandonment. I am the very person who will always stand up when it is not is popular, such as when the likes of the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, was being brought forward.

I stood with the Minister and supported it. The CAP is not the only thing that will keep farmers in rural Ireland going, however. The one thing I ask of the Taoiseach is to get rid of this talk about culling the herd. At one time, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil always stood for rural Ireland, farmers and middle Ireland but they seem to have basically abandoned them. The Government should not do it in the sly way it is trying to do it at the moment. It used to be two cows to the hectare but now that the cow milks a bit more it is 1.6 of them. That is a sly way of doing things. The likes of sheep farmers on mountains are getting a derogatory type of extra grant. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, talks about the way forward on climate and designation and all that. Ironically, under this great ACRES scheme - I am not saying it is all bad; it does have good parts - most farmers in a designated area could not put anything into the riparian zone, so they lost €3,000. If that is good - and the Minister talking about climate - I am a Dutchman.

I listened to the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and, to be honest, I was frothing at some of the things he came out with. Does the Government realise that by agreeing to what it is signing up to in Europe and under its future forestry policy, 1 million ha will be taken out of the equation? I will explain. When the Government talks about signing up to 30% under the new nature restoration, it is talking about farmers who went out and shored land and that made them viable in rural areas across the west, north west, midlands and south west. They shored it with their bare hands and a shovel and now the Government is telling them they had better rewet that land. The State forestry body was before the agriculture committee last Tuesday. It stated that it is going to get in a private entity that is based outside the country. There was reference to this earlier. The big word a few months ago was that 100,000 ha is going to be planted in the next 30 years by the private entity. Is the Government proud of that? That private entity is a vulture fund, to call it simple and straight. The Government should have learned enough about vulture funds through the housing market. It is going to buy the land and the State forestry company which owns 440,000 ha is now going to become the manager of that. Is that what the coalition parties want? Do they even know about it? They probably do not. It was announced the other night that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is aware of it. The Minister is aware of it. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil were friends of farmers at one time. What is that move going to do to small farmers in the west, north west, south west or midlands? Farmers with a 5, 10 or 15 acre farm will not be able to compete.

These are the consequences of what is being done by the Government. In fairness to Deputy Harkin, she spoke very well earlier about balanced regional development. Whatever about balanced regional development, we want to be able to live where we are first. We want to be able to work the land where we are. The proposals that have been agreed by the Government involve 100,000 ha in forestry and 850,000 acres of rewetting. Some of that land is in Listowel where dairy farmers are working. Does that give confidence to farmers?

As for the fear I have at the moment, the Government should have a look at the statistics. In the past ten years, we have lost 40% of livestock farmers in Europe. That is a fact. The Government can Google it. What we need to do is to encourage people to farm in rural Ireland in a sustainable way. I am not talking about destroying rivers or anything like that but I am saying the Government should not drive farmers off the land.

There are certain parts of the country that will be worst affected by the policies that are being pursued.

They include the west, north west, south west and parts of the midlands. They are areas in which the land is not of as good a quality as elsewhere, which means the vultures will buy it. Coillte has said it will be the manager. If we look at the statistics for the sale of land, the vultures will be competing for every parcel of 1 or 2 acres. How is any family farm to survive in that situation and how will anyone go forward?

The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, talked earlier about transport. Yes, there are some new rural links. I do not deny that. However, the roads were bad this morning and there was no pubic transport option for me to get to Dublin and back home again tonight. It seems there are two capitals in Ireland now, namely, Cork and Dublin, because 12 out of the 15 Ministers are from there. There is the DART, Luas, taxi or bus to take people from those places home tonight. The rest of us were forced to take a car because we have no other way of getting home.

The Minister talks about transport and climate. There was low-hanging fruit to be taken last year and, to be fair, the Government did well at the beginning. It announced there was to be a free transport ticket for every youngster going to school. What did it do then? It left half of them without tickets. There was míle murder about that and there still is. This is the problem. If the Minister wants to do some good on climate, he should take the low-hanging fruit by making sure all children have access to a bus to school and mammy does not have to bring them to school in the SUV. That is what I call going forward and doing things in a normal, rational way, rather than this wild talk we are hearing.

Speaking of wild talk, today we heard all about the number of turbines that are going to be put up across the country on every coast. There is a reality to be met here. I know there is a planning Bill coming forward but the reality is that every investor who was going to the west of Ireland has walked away because of the fear of how the planning process has worked up to now. We are not going to magic up those turbines overnight or even within the next two or three years.

Another concern is the photo opportunities we are seeing around battery storage. I have nothing against battery storage but the reality is it only does about two hours. In the past month, the wind did not blow. I do not know how the Jesus we are going to power the battery storage from the wind if it does not blow. As I said, I urge the Minister to look at the low-hanging fruit, including the likes of the school buses. I agree 100% with the move to solar energy. In fairness, there are good opportunities coming in that area and we need to go forward as best we can.

Unfortunately, when we talk to people in the farming community at this time, they say they do not know where they are going. They do not know what is happening with nitrates. They do not know whether there will be culls of cows. They see in theIrish Farmers' Journalthat it is so much per cow. When there is a situation in which there are no decisions being made, it leaves a vacuum and room for speculation. When the communities that worked towards the €12.5 billion to €13 billion the agricultural sector contributed to this country in the past year are left in that situation, there will, first, be no machinery bought and, second, they will not spend money because they do not know where they are going. People need a roadmap and a path to the future for their children.

We have to live in those rural areas. The land and the roads might not be as good as in other places but we are proud of where we are from. We are able to farm that land. We do not need someone coming along to tell us we must bring the water level up to a certain height or we will basically have to abandon the land. What will happen? People will be driven into the cities and the towns, where there are no houses at the moment. We are not going to magic up those homes. I ask the Taoiseach to listen to what I have said and keep it in mind over the next two and a half years. If something is good, I am always man enough to say it is good. I am not an Opposition Member who will criticise things for the sake of it, but I see what is happening in rural areas. I urge the Taoiseach, for the next two and a half years, to think of the people I have mentioned and to take on board that there is more to Ireland than Dublin and Cork. There is also Donegal, Kerry, Galway, Louth and all the other places around the country.

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