Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Leader to provide for a debate on farming, in particular the outcome of CAP reform, among other issues. Currently, some €50 million is being taken out of rural Ireland, in particular because of the "eye in the sky", whereby large tracts of farmland in severely disadvantaged areas are being taken out of the equation for disadvantaged area scheme payments and some people are losing 20% or 30% of their payments. This is a retrograde step and is most unfortunate.

Historically, farmers were advised not to overstock. Area-based payments were then brought in and farmers in remote parts of rural Ireland were advised to keep their scrub and hedgerows, to protect wildlife and the environment and to leave things as they were. They were asked to protect the frogs in the ponds and the corncrake, if there are any of them left, although I know there are a few in Cape Clear, and to protect the birds and the bees. Now, all of a sudden, the most disadvantaged farms are being hit with this new clawback.

It is a very serious issue which will take €50 million out of the economy of rural Ireland. It particularly hits the most disadvantaged areas. I am sure my good colleague, Senator Comiskey, will know that many farmers in Leitrim are also being hit. It does not affect the farmer who has 100 acres of good land for tillage or for intensive dairy farming. It is a sneaky cut.

I am not looking for the impossible, namely, that we would have a debate before Christmas. However, I ask that, as early in the new year as possible, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, would come to the House for a general debate on farming, in particular the position with regard to CAP, Pillar 1 and Pillar 2, where the area-based schemes are going into the future and why the most vulnerable farmers are being hit coming up to Christmas.

A woman who has a very small holding contacted me last week to tell me her entire holding has been disallowed because there are too many bushes, outcrops of rock and so on.

If we go down that road, two thirds of farmers in remote rural areas will be excluded.

Another area in which farmers are being hit is in respect of the farm assist scheme. It has now transpired that more than 1,000 owners of relatively small farms throughout the country, for whom the farm assist is equivalent to a social welfare benefit, have been deemed ineligible or had their payment reduced because of a change in the welfare regime. This arises because the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, in last year's budget, stealthily introduced a provision whereby these small farmers, instead of being assessed on 70% of their income, would now be assessed on 100% of that income. The result is that 1,000 farmers who were in receipt of farm assist 18 months ago have lost their entitlement or had their payment severely curtailed. Farming has been badly hit as we come up to Christmas. I hope the Leader will, as soon as we return in January, facilitate a full day's debate on a range of issues relating to farming, including the Common Agricultural Policy and the various agricultural schemes. It would be a worthwhile exercise and I am sure the Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, will learn a great deal from the expertise of colleagues in the House.