Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the Senator rightly said at the outset, I was at a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine where I felt duty bound to be, and I expected all the agriculture representatives of the parties would have been, when this kind of political, cynical stroke was pulled last Tuesday evening.

We agree in principle with the motion, but we feel that the wording as it stands is too narrow. The motion ignored multiple biophysical constraints. It referred specifically to mountain and hill areas, which is unrepresentative of the farming community at large. We need a debate on the matter. We got an email on Friday indicating that there would be a proposal to amend the Order of Business again today which we again will not support in a knee-jerk fashion. If and when the Leader can give us a commitment that the Minister will come to the House with the facts and figures as to how the current underspend in the RDP, TAMS and GLAS will be allocated towards the ANC scheme where we can have a full debate and are allowed the opportunity to make amendments to the motion, we will then agree to an amendment to the Order of Business.