Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)

Populist politics would not have supported it but we did produce an alternative budget and we have produced alternative ways of accumulating the same money. We say the cuts are misdirected and misplaced. They are a mistake in that the extent of the income reduction will make it unviable to continue to farm in many instances, thus affecting the numbers. It is a also a mistake not to allow older farmers to move off their farms such that they can be replaced by younger ones.

This matter requires serious reflection and I appeal to the Minister to address it, even at this stage, because change has been made in respect of other budgetary provisions. The principle has been conceded that the budget is not written in stone. It would be more courageous, patriotic and visionary to change the provision and say a farmer must have a viable income and that a young farmer is worthy of some support for his initiative on starting up. Older farmers who have fought the good fight, tilled the land, put up with the vagaries of weather and the associated hardship, who have been very patriotic rocks of society who have not cost too much in terms of security — there are not too many Garda calls to farms — and who have represented a cost to the State only in terms of what they did positively should be applauded, supported and given the pension. I ask the Minister of State to reflect on the matter, change the budget and seek the savings elsewhere.

No sane, rational person is suggesting we should not trim the economic sails. We should have done it long ago. The fundamental difficulty is that we have not been doing so for eight years. It is a question of how one should trim the sails. Does one do so such that there will be nobody left to pay tax?