Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sure the Leader saw in the media that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Coveney, flippantly announced at the National Ploughing Championships that there will be no replacement for the rural environmental protection scheme, REPS. Some 13,000 farmers will exit the scheme at the beginning of next year. Some 40% of them are from the north west and west of the country. The Minister acknowledged that, in many instances, the lack of support constitutes up to 50% of the income of small farm families. I ask the Leader to ask the Taoiseach to intervene personally in this issue.

As the Leader and Members know, the Government was given a very large mandate to govern this country equally but the announcement by the Minister, Deputy Coveney, yesterday that there will be no scheme for these people, these 13,000 families around the country, is tantamount, in my view, to agricultural genocide for the small farming families of Ireland who depend on some €6,000 or less in income per year, which constitutes in many instances 50% of their income. More than 5,000 of those families are in the west of Ireland where smaller holdings, longer winters and fewer agricultural land use options are the norm. These are families that helped to build this country by harvesting the bounty of the land. This Government has shown nothing other than absolute contempt and disregard for them. I call on people like Senator Comiskey and those with a background in agriculture in the Fine Gael and Labour parties, to intervene. It demands the Taoiseach's personal intervention because the Government cannot just cast aside these 13,000 families. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, said flippantly yesterday that a new scheme will be developed in 2015. What are those 13,000 families to do in the meantime? Are they to starve? Surely common sense must prevail. The Leader is from Waterford and he will be able to relate to some of these issues. I ask him to see if the Taoiseach's common sense can be brought to bear so that something can be done.