Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Ceann Comhairle, his wife and family, and all staff and Members a very holy, happy and peaceful Easter. Indeed, we are talking about lamb and sheep today. Lamb was a traditional feast. Easter lamb was always a proud purchase for a household if they could still afford. I heard today about people writing to Frankie Feighan. They might as well be writing into Frankie Byrne as talking to the Government about the sheep sector or any other sector.

As the Ceann Comhairle knows, I have been seeking this debate for approximately eight weeks from the Business Committee. For the Minister not to be here this evening and say he had a prior appointment in County Donegal is a downright insult. That is no disrespect to the Minister of State. The Minister knew that with the debate that far ahead, it should have been scheduled in.

I do not need to remind anyone so I will only mention two aspects of the old sheep welfare scheme with the premiums. It was £22 per head. People had to retain the ewes and keep them for one year. Now, the Government is telling us it is trying to help and encourage the sheep farmers with a scheme in which they have to keep them for 325 days, and the premium is only €12. It needs to be €30. We need to be realistic here. Teagasc needs to be assertive and accurate in its figures and support the farmers.

I should declare at the very start that I am the proud owner of a hill farm. My son Caoimhín has the farm leased and we have a number of sheep on the slopes of the Knockmealdown mountains. I salute the sheep farmers of the Knockmealdown and Galtee mountains and, indeed, the Comeragh mountains across in Deputy Ó Cathasaigh's area, even though he was playing Mozart or something - I do not know what he was talking about, but we will educate him some day about the sheep and what happens on the mountains. The costs have gone up and soared in every area. Lambing season is now in full swing. Then, we have the pressure of marauding animals. There is no proper legislation. Dogs come in and are left loose. We saw a horrible incident last week in a part of the west where a farmer was assaulted.

Sheep are lovely and very docile animals. They are very good for the green agenda because they clean farms and fields of weeds and everything else. They have lovely produce. The wool industry is another industry with which something could be done. It is just waste now. It costs money to shear the sheep. They must be shorn but the whole industry is lagging. We are importing from China. Maybe Deputy Feighan should have looked at that when he was in China to see if there were any Irish wool products. Material is going out there and coming back in here as products. There are many areas of sheep farming that need support and we are not getting it. We need tangible supports. We have acres of schemes and schemes and schemes. All we want is for the sheep farmers to be allowed to farm. Let them round the sheep up with their sheepdogs, a lovely art and craft. Let them shear them and look after them. They support the veterinarians and we think of all the money that is spent locally, but we are not allowing them the will to live. This Government seems to have a death wish against rural Ireland.

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