Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My party and this Government are proudly supporting farmers, rural Ireland and the agriculture sector.

We meet them on a very regular basis. I meet them on a very regular basis. I regularly met them with the Minister for agriculture as well. We took a number of decisions in the budget to further support farming and farmers, including making sensible changes to the residential zoned land tax and extending agricultural reliefs, which I do not believe every party in this Dáil would do. As recently as today at Cabinet, we established a commission on the issue of generational farming. As I visit marts and agricultural shows and travel around the country, one of the biggest issues I have heard is the importance of a farmer wanting to know that there is a future for a son or daughter who might want to take on the farm. We do need to do more on that, including looking at retirement schemes and the likes, so we are in the business of listening.

We are not in the business of talking down to agriculture. We need to be very clear that agriculture is not some "nice to do" thing that people in the countryside do. It is the backbone of the Irish economy. It is the part that does not leave when times get tough. It is always here and it needs to be treated with respect. I have never heard anybody in the Government suggest that the biggest polluter is agriculture. That is not borne out, as the Deputy correctly says, by any sort of evidence.

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