Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to get a few seconds to talk about this very serious matter. It is the people on marginal land who had to work and drain their land to make it productive who will be hurt. We cannot flood fertile land. We cannot flood the plains of County Kildare, the Golden Vale in County Tipperary, east Cork or Limerick, but the Government will try to do it in south and north Kerry, which Deputy Michael Healy-Rae mentioned.

The poor farmers slave day and night in their fields alone, and sometimes with their wives and families, to try to help make land productive. This is what the Government is standing by and trying to force through without showing any clear understanding of what it is at. It is not telling the people what is happening. The new term being used is "nature restoration", but it started out with rewetting. It is horrible. What the Government is trying to do to poor people who made their land productive is to make it unproductive so they will have to vacate it.

I want to ask the Ceann Comhairle one question. How is a Senator in Dáil Éireann who was not elected to Dáil Éireann? Will he explain that to the House? How is that happening? I thought people had to get elected by the people to be in Dáil Éireann. Explain that to the House.

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