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

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for giving me the opportunity to raise this very important matter with the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers.

I will outline first the deep concern expressed by many farmers in rural areas, especially in rural Kerry. The farmers whose lands people are talking about rewetting are the farmers who are working the hardest. They drained their land and were encouraged to do so to make it productive back in the 1960s, the early 1970s and through the 1980s. They were grant-aided to do that and they worked very hard to make their land productive. It is very hurtful now for them to hear people in government or advising Government, or whatever, saying that these lands should be rewetted in the name of biodiversity. That will actually spell the end of their livelihoods if that goes through. However, it has stalled in recent times in Europe. I believe that a vote was lost by the people proposing the rewetting. I believe that another vote is due to take place in the next few days.

I was glad to hear the Taoiseach today outline his view on rewetting. He said that it should only be voluntary and that farmers should be compensated if they decide to go for this scheme. I have a problem with that, although it is good to hear him saying it in the first place. If a farmer in the middle of a flat low-lying place decides that he wants to flood or rewet his place, he will probably rewet his neighbours on one side of him or on both sides. You could have problems because of that. This is unfair because when you talk about rewetting, you are only talking about people on these low-lying lands. Then you have people in the Golden Vale with free-draining soil, and you have mountainy places which will not be affected at all. In the 1940s and early 1950s, the Arterial Drainage Act 1945 helped people in places like north Kerry to drain almost 26,000 acres of land, which is now highly productive land. The communities around there have enjoyed the spin-off from good farming practices over the years in the villages, the shops, the garages and the entire community.

Then there is the proposal to carry out maintenance. We have 1,172 submissions from the likes of An Taisce, Bat Conservation Ireland, BirdWatch Ireland and so on. All of these groups - I will not call them "do-gooders" - are aided and funded by the Government. These organisations have lodged professional submissions against what the OPW and the farming community have in mind and want to do to ensure that maintenance is continued into the future at the Cashen outlet, which has silted up by more than a metre from what it was. There are proposals for 16 pumps driven by wind energy because they cannot carry out the drainage in the manner they have done previously due to the fact that the Cashen outlet is in a special area of conservation.

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