Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. There are many difficulties facing Irish farming at present, including the free-fall in farm incomes, the collapse in milk prices, problems with food labelling, ever-changing deadlines imposed by the Department for applications for grant aid and the world trade talks. The list goes on. I will limit my comments to the issues arising from the budget. It is agreed by most reasonable commentators that budget 2009 has been a disaster in many ways. It took from the poor and vulnerable in our society. It lacked vision and any sense of direction. It was a document from a Government with no eye on the future. Nowhere in the budget was that more evident than in the section dealing with agriculture. No industry has a future as long as it fails to entice new blood and new ideas into it.

This Fianna Fáil-led Government has done more to harm that industry than any group of bureaucrats in Europe or Doha. The cry that rose up from Carrick-on-Shannon on Sunday was that Fianna Fáil has forgotten its roots, and I believe that is true. This budget confirmed the belief that the Government has lost touch with rural Ireland.

The abolition of the farm retirement scheme and the installation scheme will have a detrimental effect on the rural way of life. These measures will make farming an unviable option for most, if not all, young people. Farmers in their late 50s and early 60s will not be able to afford to retire. In turn, without installation aid, their sons and daughters will not be able to afford to start up in farming. These schemes were meant to assist and entice new people — the next generation — into the industry. Without these schemes it is not an option.

The Government is going to let an entire indigenous industry and way of life die out. It is an industry that has been the backbone of the economy for generations. The Government is now driving the final nail into the coffin. The removal of these schemes is a vote of no confidence in rural Ireland. The rug is being pulled out from under many farmers who worked hard in poor times to ensure that they would have something to hand on to the next generation.

A former member of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party recently stated that de Valera and Lemass would be turning in their graves as a result of this budget and its measures. He was accurate in his analysis. People are tired of the hypocrisy of Fianna Fáil Members in both Houses of the Oireachtas regarding many issues, particularly rural Ireland.

I agree with the sentiments of my colleague, Deputy Penrose, which he expressed during a Private Members' debate in the Lower House, as follows

We will no longer tolerate Deputies and Senators who are all things to all people in their constituencies, but do not express the views of their constituents when they get an opportunity to make decisions on important matters here in this House. We do not want any nice token speeches from Members on the Government side — we want action.

It is not good enough to go off down to a constituency or head to the plinth outside Leinster House and say one thing, while doing the exact opposite in here by following the party line. The soldiers of destiny are fast becoming the soldiers of hypocrisy and the Government is marching rural Ireland to destruction and isolation.

Since coming into Government over 11 years ago, this Fianna Fáil Administration has activated policies that are slowly but surely closing the lid on rural Ireland. Rural creameries are now a thing of the past, while rural pubs and post offices are almost extinct. Never has the fishing industry been in such a disastrous situation. Rising fuel costs, reduced quotas and poor investment have left this once thriving industry on its knees. All this has happened on Fianna Fáil's watch.

The Government has failed rural Ireland because it failed to show leadership or vision. The cancellation of these two schemes is a fitting testament to the failed policies of Fianna Fáil. Rural Ireland will remember this, just as pensioners will remember who stole their medical cards. The cuts in agriculture did not stop with the abolition of the farm retirement and installation schemes. The Government went on to cut livestock and disadvantaged area payments also. This will mean that some farmers could lose up to 50% of their income in one go.

I am particularly disappointed that there has been a cut, from 45 to 34, in the number of hectares for which the disadvantaged areas payment can be made. This is devastating for farmers in the most disadvantaged areas of the country. Rural Ireland relies almost entirely on agriculture. This, of course, is because the Government has failed to invest in these areas. It has shown no vision in attracting other industries there and, therefore, if farming dies away, so will rural Ireland. The effects of these cuts will be felt most of all in the north west, west and south west, the most rural parts of the country. This budget will drive people off the land.

Communities will be decimated and emigration will become commonplace. Rural GAA clubs will again be unable to field teams. This is the vision of Fianna Fáil. It is the legacy of a boom that was squandered during a time of unparalleled wealth that was wasted.

The Labour Party fully supports the campaign to have these cuts reversed. We ask the Minister to consider rural Ireland, including coastal communities that are being put to the pin of their collar in an uphill battle for survival. He should consider farming families that do not currently see a future on the land. We ask him to make a stand against the anti-rural bias that is so clearly evidenced in so many Government decisions.

There is justifiable anger in the farming community, in addition to a fear for the future and what it holds for farming. It is the Government's job to provide the necessary leadership to allay that fear and uncertainty, which is clearly evident. The Minister is failing that test, however.