Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Last Friday the newly independent Shannon Airport made 300 acres available to the IFA and made a contribution of €5,000 to cut the grass. The airport must be commended on its actions. It also contributed hundreds of bales to a scheme operated by the IFA to help the farmers of County Clare. That is a clear example of the benefit of an independent Shannon Airport. If it had been tied to the Dublin Airport Authority, the fodder crisis would have been well and truly over by the time agreement was reached to cut the grass and a financial contribution would not have been made. I say hats off to the management team of Shannon Airport.

The banks need to step up to the plate when it comes to assisting farmers and dealing with the fodder crisis. Unfortunately, evidence on the ground to date is that the banks are not co-operating to the degree that the Minister and the farming organisations expected. We need a new and renewed commitment by the financial institutions to farmers during what is hopefully a temporary difficult period.

Finally, I was troubled to make a discovery in the past few days about a construction project in Clare that the NRA has tried to embark upon for some time. I refer to the demolition of houses at Blake's Corner in Ennistymon, County Clare, which is regarded as the most dangerous junction in the west of Ireland, with more than 1 million cars travelling through it in any one summer. I was troubled to discover that An Bord Pleanála has recommended to Clare County Council that €100,000 be spent on an environmental impact study, when everyone, whether they have expertise on the area or not, realises that the result will be the demolition of the two buildings.