Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to first apologise to the Minister for being late. Parents of children with life-limiting illnesses are meeting with leaders of various political parties today and I had to be in attendance at the meeting. The Minister will appreciate why that would have kept me away until now.

We need to be frank in this debate, so I will be frank. These payments were originally in Donegal and Connacht, and they were for the most disadvantaged farmers in the State. They were to be directed to those who most needed assistance to stay on the land. As the years moved on, it was widened out for political reasons and now covers 75% of the land mass of this State.

One could not argue that many people in the areas in receipt were disadvantaged, certainly in comparison to the original areas that had been allocated. It got to the point where it was stretching credulity, and the purpose of the EU assistance, to the point where one could not stand over it. That has been the case for all these years. That is why I am pleased to see the emergence of farmers who are standing up for themselves and calling this out as it is, namely, that there needs to be a fair allocation to farmers who are genuinely in areas of natural constraint and genuinely disadvantaged by the topography and the conditions with which they work.

The Minister can oversee a system that directs resources to those most in need, but he can also protect the interests of those who would be concerned about losing out. There is a way to strike that balance, and the Minister needs to do that in the time ahead. An additional €25 million will be added to the budget soon. He needs to take that opportunity to ensure that that €25 million goes to the most constrained areas. This is his chance to ensure that that additional €25 million, and all future funding, will be dealt with on that basis.

For three weeks in a row we have put a motion before this House. It is based on the campaign of the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association, INHFA, which is representative of an emerging group of farmers who are angry about their situation and are standing up for their rights. We salute them and encourage them in their work. Members present here today, and many other Oireachtas Members, have gone to public meetings attended by hundreds of farmers and assured them that they would defend their interests. They have assured the INHFA that they would support the objectives of its members' campaign, so we felt confident in putting the motion on the Order Paper. That motion remained on the Order Paper for an entire month. Everybody could see it. Everybody was aware of the issues. The first week we had to listen to the excuse that it caught people by surprise, that they wanted a debate and that it clashed with the agriculture committee, which was sitting at the same time. We did not believe that.

In the second week we proposed that a debate would take place, that we would debate the motion afterwards and that it would not clash with the agriculture committee. Yet again, that was voted down. This week, we wanted that motion to be taken at the end of this debate when people had a chance to discuss all the issues. They were arguing that that was the only thing preventing them from supporting that motion and backing the campaign of the INHFA, and the new emerging farmers fighting for their rights in those areas. It was voted down again today.

I will make it very clear for the Minister, and I am sure my colleagues have already done so. Now that he has had this debate and heard all the issues from his perspective, we will put the vote again next week. Let there be no doubt where people stand. As Sinn Féin representatives, we will not stand in front of a packed room of farmers concerned about their future, and concerned about fairness, tell them that we care about them and then do something very different when it comes to a vote. Our party is united in our perspective on this issue. We know that we will not please everybody. We know that some people will not want to hear our message, but we believe in fairness and sometimes, in trying to ensure fairness, there has to be an adjustment. In terms of that adjustment, the Minister should try to protect the interests of those who may lose a little, but in the interest of fairness we have to do what has to be done.

I hope the Minister will encourage his colleagues here in the Seanad to support our motion, which will be put for the fourth time next week. We hope he has taken on board the concerns of the farmers the INHFA represents. I note that the Irish Farmers Association, IFA, and other farming organisations are making commitments to move in that direction. I welcome that. It is important that as many farming organisations as possible acknowledge the injustice that so many farmers have faced, the lack of fairness in terms of payments and the fact that those payments did not reflect accurately the constraints and the realities in the way they were supposed to do at European level.

A very wise comment was made at the public meeting in Donegal that sometimes we can be too cute or too smart for our own good in this country. If we are too cute for our own good in the way we interpret and implement the areas of natural constraint scheme, we could lose European funding if the way we allocate it does not achieve its objectives. I hope the Minister will not be too cute or too smart about this issue. He should do what is right and fair. We will put our motion again next week and trust that this fourth time it will finally be passed in this House.