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

I wish to put on record my gratitude on behalf of all our group to Deputy Mattie McGrath, Mairéad McGrath, Brian Ó Domhnaill and the people who did a lot of work in the research of this very important motion we have brought before the Dáil today. I am particularly glad to be speaking after the Minister spoke because I am very glad to have heard what he had to say.

Since I was 18, I have been paid up number of the IFA and I am glad to be so. A short number of weeks ago members of Macra na Feirme, under Elaine Houlihan their current president, marched here. If all was so well in the garden why did Macra na Feirme members march here a couple weeks ago? If everything was fine and they were happy with the Minister and the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, why did they march here? It was not for the fun of it. They came here because they want to voice their concerns over the future of young people in farming. If everything was as rosy in the garden as the Minister just said, they would not have been marching here and we would not have farmers up and down the length and breadth of the country so concerned.

I listened very carefully to the Minister saying that farmers were poorly served by people in the Opposition. I challenge him directly on that. People can only speak for themselves. I have been in local and national politics for a while now. I will put it up to the Minister any day the week that the farmers I work for, the people I represent, are not happy. I am not a Johnny-come-lately. I have been here for a while and I hope I will be here for a long time more if the people are good enough to keep me but predominantly if farmers keep me. I will tell the Minister why. I have always defended farmers, whatever sector of farming they are in, whether it is dairy, suckler, sheep, forestry, the pig sector or the poultry sector. I have always defended them because I would like to think I have a thing called common sense.

Unfortunately, this Government under the direction of the Green Party has sold its soul. I have said it here over and over again and I mean it. I do not get satisfaction from saying this. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have lost rural Ireland and the Green Party never had rural Ireland. These are the facts. This will be shown next year when there will be local elections. The Government will see the tsunami of opposition to what it has been doing. I really mean this.

I am coming to the culling of cows because that is what our motion is about. The Minister mentioned forestry a few minutes ago. If I were in his shoes as Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine, I would be ashamed to mention the word "forestry". He knows that since 1946 the record in forestry has not been as bad as it is now under this Government. That is the fact. It has lost that game completely and just to mention forestry is totally ridiculous.

I am coming back to the motion because the culling of the cows is the important thing. The Minister knows the term "liquid gold" was mentioned by a former Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine. Farmers were encouraged to increase numbers. The Minister is now telling those very same people they need to reduce their numbers. He is praising the schemes that are in place now. He has been around long enough to remember - he has a memory as good as any of the rest of us - that 20 years ago, we had good schemes in agriculture. We had a good scheme to bring young people into farming. We had a good scheme to let people leave farming, a retirement package. They were good schemes that were meaningful. The schemes we have now are overburdened with bureaucracy and red tape and at the end of the day mean very little to people in a financial way. The environmental agricultural schemes that are there now are woefully inadequate. They are a pittance in comparison with what they should be and they are hard for people to get.

Coming back to milk, we are now being told that our suckler herd must be diminished because the Green Party want us to do so. What will the alternative be? We are better at farming than anyone else. The damage to the environment by our agriculture is far less than anyone else's in the world. It is the exact opposite. We are leaders in producing milk, beef and lamb at what I would call the minimal disruption to the countryside because we base it on growing grass. It is the most natural thing in the world to do - to grow grass for grazing, to grow grass to cut for hay or silage and then to feed it to our animals. Let us consider what they are doing in Brazil where they are doubling and quadrupling their herd. They are forging ahead because they see the stupidity of what people like us are being told to do under the Minister's direction. They know that if they cut down more of the Amazon rainforests and turn that ground into grazing ground, they will be able to supply more beef around the world. That is what they will be doing but that is what the Minister is encouraging them to do while he is saying to our people, "Ah lads, conduct yourselves now. We must give this up. We must reduce our herd." That is what he is doing. It is wrong for him and the Tánaiste to deny it. It would be a fine thing for them to come along and tell the people the truth.

I listened very closely to what the Minister said. He as good as said that the IFA and the ICMSA are happy with what he is doing. I disagree with that because I know fine upstanding people in these farming groups and organisations who have their heads on the right way around. They represent farmers on the ground in all parts of Kerry. I am talking now specifically for a moment about Kerry. I am talking about the IFA branches in Kerry. I know the people in the vast majority of the different branches. Whether it is south Kerry, east Kerry, north Kerry, mid-Kerry or west Kerry, I know every one of them.

We are all glad they have agricultural shows, which are our social events. If he cares to come, the Minister would be very welcome to the Kilgarvan agricultural show over the August bank holiday weekend. I would welcome him there. I am sure the farmers would be delighted to meet him and have discussions with him. He would be welcome to come that. The Dingle agricultural show will be on in a couple of weeks' time. He would be welcome to come there and meet farmers. However, if he comes, the one thing they will tell him is that they are not happy. They are not happy with this Government and are not happy with what the Minister and his Department are proposing for them.

They are not happy with the mixed messages the Government is giving. Before it was a case of increase, which is what people did. They reclaimed land at an awful cost to themselves. They worked very hard to turn brown and wet ground into green ground. They built sheds and expanded their slurry storage capacity. They did everything right. They are the real green party. They are the real custodians of the countryside.

They are the people who nurture the countryside, who work there, who keep it green, who keep it right, who maintain it and who maintained our family farms.

What is the Minister doing? It is like death by a thousand cuts. That is what he is doing to agriculture. He cannot get away from it. I heard him making his speech for the ten minutes that he spoke, and I will give him my honest opinion that I actually do not believe he believes what came out of his own mouth because he cannot. If he did, he would not say it. He is saying it because he is the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. It is put in front of him and it is a case of going out there to tell the Rural Independent group “This is our stand. This is what we are maintaining. This is what we are standing by.” I think it is so wrong.

Time will prove that the Minister is wrong. Time will prove that our motion today is right. There are a number of points we are making and we want agreement on that. We want people like those in Sinn Féin and all of those in the smaller groups to support us but we also want the backbenchers in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to do so. Forget about those in the Green Party; they are irrelevant. What we want those people to do is to realise that if they are interested in standing up for the electorate who put them here in the first instance, they will not vote on a party line and they should vote with us. They should vote for our Private Members’ motion, which is so important to the future of Irish farming. They should remember we are the one crowd who stood up here and told the Government that what it was doing was madness when it went to shut down Bord na Móna. That is mad. We are selling briquettes and we are bringing in peat. It is completely opposite to what the Government told us would happen but it is happening. The same thing will happen with beef. The Minister wants us to cut back on our exports and, instead, we will be importing from Brazil and other places. Will he be happy then? Shame on the Minister.

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