Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

He is the longest serving Minister for Agriculture in the history of the State, but I never thought I would see the day when a Minister for Agriculture would say in the Oireachtas that in order to avoid the abandonment of land, with resultant environmental problems, recipients of direct payments will also be obliged to maintain their land in good agricultural condition. What message does that give to young people who intend to continue in the traditions of their parents in agriculture? It is one of the most appalling statements ever made and anyone responsible for such a statement at a time of crisis in agriculture must consider his position in the context of his commitment to agriculture.

Senator Dardis threw out a challenge earlier, saying everything we said was negative and that we were putting our heads in the sand. That challenge was taken up by the Minister. I throw out a challenge to the Minister for Agriculture and Food to take a leaf from the book of his colleague, the Minister for Education and Science. That Minister knows there is a crisis in education and he has initiated a review and restructuring of every section in his Department. We hope that review has a positive result and I ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food to undertake the same review in his Department.

Whatever is necessary should be done in order to get positive thinking back into agriculture. This Government has been in power for 12 of the past 15 years but when has it ever come forward with an example of forward thinking for agriculture? It has come up with nothing of the sort and instead we have had responses to crisis after crisis and ad hockery. The result is that farmers are totally disillusioned. That is why a tractor cavalcade from every corner of the country came through Dublin, as Senator Coonan said. Farmers abandoned their homes to impress upon the Government the need to respond in a positive way.

What did we get? The budget saw a doubling of the levy and a withdrawal of the promised arrangement. That was done by a former leader of the Irish Farmers Association, who said he was going to revoke the roll-over regarding compulsory purchase. Today we see that farmers are to be penalised a further €18 to €20 in order to dispose of offal in meat factories.

If the Minister for Agriculture and Food thinks there is nothing wrong in agriculture today, where are we going? Can he not see the need to reintroduce some confidence at a time of crisis?

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Treacy. He can see in east Galway that Teagasc, because of cutbacks of €15 million, has had to close Mellowes Agricultural College, even though it was teaching organic farming as an alternative method of farming.