Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, to the House. I ask that he would take back the concerns and issues I will raise to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

We pride ourselves on our reputation as a top, green food producing country. However, recent budget and policy decisions by the Government will work to prevent this and — this is difficult to say — will actively work towards the wiping out of farming, particularly in the west.

I was struck by the vagueness of the presentation by the last speaker, the Green Senator. He is certainly green when it comes to farming. He spoke about his optimism and how we need to broaden the debate beyond what is currently happening. Does he want these people to still be in farming? These people — the beef, dairy and sheep farmers — have contributed their way of life and their whole tradition to pure farming. Of course, I agree with broadening it out but let us not forget those who are dedicated to it.

I wish to raise particular issues with the Minister of State. I hope his officials will be able to answer the questions today if they are not within his own remit. The first issue concerns the de-stocking of sheep on the Connemara mountains, particularly with regard to the hill farmers. The deal put forward by the National Parks and Wildlife Service promised farmers €2,000 a year for five years. I want confirmation as to whether this deal is still intact. I ask this in light of the recent budgetary cuts. While there has been no mention of this grant being cut, I am hearing of huge worry among farmers who are expecting this because of the way the Government cut the suckler cow grant.

In January 2007, the then Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Coughlan, with great aplomb brought out the suckler cow grant of €80 a head. This has now been cut to €40 a head despite it being part of the social partnership deal, which I often hear the Minister of State support. We now have a breach of that social partnership deal with regard to the suckler cow grant. Can I confirm that for the hill farmers, whose income is so minuscule I do not know how they manage, the compensation deal around de-stocking is safe?

We already have had breaches of that deal. I was at the public meeting in Maam in Connemara where the farmers were told they would be asked to de-stock to 1.5 ewes per hectare. When they are working out their plans with the individual planners, they are now being asked to de-stock to 42% less in reality — to approximately 0.75 ewes per hectare. To give one practical and actual example, a farmer with 50 acres is allowed 15 ewes. This is a joke. Just how much money does the Minister of State think one ewe is worth? It is not worth even €50. Who can live on that? It is outrageous.

To make matters even worse, once a lamb passes 1 January, it will be called a ewe although it might be only six months old. This is killing enterprise. I have listened to what the Minister and the Green Senator said about promoting enterprise but the farmers need at the very least to be able to replace ewes with ewes. Lambs that are only six months old cannot reproduce until they are at least two years old. The Government should get rid of the ridiculous rule whereby they are called ewes after 1 January.

Let us focus on these Connemara farmers. They are also hit by a 25% cut in area-based disadvantaged aid, which amounts to €1,000 or one quarter of their income. As I said, the suckler cow grant had given a legitimate expectation of €80 per head but this was cut in half. It was a legitimate expectation that farmers had this grant to invest in creep feeders and stock proof fencing in order to be able to mind their animals, but it has now been reduced by 50%. Some 60% of all the suckler herd is in the west and the average size of a herd is 16 cows. While that grant had been 16 multiplied by €80, it is now reduced to 16 multiplied by €40. If one works it out, that is very little.

On top of this, farmers are being asked to pay a 1% income levy on gross income. This must be changed to net income or the Government will be asking farmers to pay a 1% levy on their expenses. For example, if I have 16 suckler cows and get €40 a head, I need to be able to take into account that I had to buy in creep feeders and stock proof fencing. I should not be asked to pay a 1% income levy on the gross amount. I need to be able to take off the cost of the stock proof fencing and the creep feeders to get my net figure, which is my take home pay after my expenses. It is on that figure only that the 1% levy should be imposed. Will that be reversed?

My final point — this is probably the nail in the coffin in terms of the future of farming — concerns the suspending, as the Minister of State calls it, or the abolition of the €15,000 installation aid for young farmers. That is grossly unfair. IDA Ireland can give €17,000 per job to attract a new job to this country. Is the Minister of State saying that a job in farming, which is our traditional way of life, is worth less? Is he diminishing it? When will that scheme be reinstated? The way young farmers who have done the course and all the legal work are being treated is outrageous.

To return to the overall point about social partnership, the Government has breached social partnership by cutting the suckler cow grant from €80 to €40. That was a plank upon which the social partnership deal was agreed. Is that move legal? The Minister of State wants us to buy into it at many levels, yet he treats farmers in this way.

I am angry. I represent the legitimate views of farmers as expressed to me. Part of our family income is from farming. I grew up on a farm and I am involved in farming today. Everything I have explained is real. It is not, as expressed by the previous speaker, something that is vague or that he hopes will happen in 15 or 20 years' time. I am talking about what is happening today.

I thank the Minister of State for listening and making some notes as I spoke. I look forward to getting clarification on some of the questions I posed.