Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

On Tuesday we saw the report on farm incomes based on the Teagasc National Farm Survey 2014. The findings are shocking. They show that more than 25,000 farm households are classed as economically vulnerable - in other words, the farm is not generating enough income to support the family and neither the farmer nor the spouse has an off-farm job. The report shows graphically that most of the financially unviable farms are concentrated in the Connacht-Ulster Border area, with up to 45% in Cavan, Donegal, Monaghan, Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon. The human cost is that 7,000 farm families are not making enough money to allow them to get by or to stay in business in the medium term. In western counties such as Galway and Mayo, only 16% of farms are deemed to be financially viable in the medium term, by far the lowest level in the country. I have had the opportunity to go around many of the areas identified in the Teagasc report. Rural poverty is an issue that is not adequately addressed by the Government. The economic collapse resulted in a collapse of other sources of income for farmers, particularly off-farm employment in the counties worst affected. In Galway it is predominantly dry stock farming. The Teagasc survey shows that dairy farms in the south and east of the country enjoy higher levels of farm viability, whereas cattle and sheep farms in the west are not able to support their farmers' families. The reality of poverty for rural families is often hidden from view. It rarely makes the headlines but its effects are devastating on communities. We need an urgent debate on falling farm incomes and rural poverty.

A delegation from the European Parliament gender equality committee, FEMM, is visiting Dublin in September. Its draft itinerary shows that it is meeting the Abortion Rights Campaign and the National Women's Council, and then the Minister for Justice and Equality. It would be highly inappropriate for an EU parliamentary committee to take a side in a domestic debate on abortion, particularly when that issue has nothing to do with this country's EU membership, and in view of our constitutional protection for the unborn child. As matters stand, this committee plans to meet abortion advocates without meeting NGOs and human rights groups who defend the rights of women in pregnancy and their unborn children. That is very troubling, and I intend to raise it again unless the committee changes its partisan stance. I ask the Leader to intervene with the Minister and make the point that there can be no question of the Minister for Justice and Equality granting a meeting in such circumstances.

This is happening while Planned Parenthood, one of the largest abortion industry groups, which has funded the Irish Family Planning Association to the tune of €500,000 in the past three years, has been exposed in a very disturbing and disgusting video released which depicted one of its senior officials casually discussing the shipment of aborted children's body parts to research labs in exchange for money. This was a sting operation done by undercover activists. It showed Planned Parenthood's senior director of medical research talking in a glib and horrific way - which put ISIS in the shade - about the sale of body parts.