Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would like to renew my call for the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to come to the House to address a matter that is covered in all our national newspapers today. The budgetary measure to which I refer is the 6% commercial charge, or transactional tax levy, on agricultural land. It is an issue in the media and also for many small farmers, in particular. The intended consequences and ramifications of this measure as enormous. A farmer who owns approximately 600 acres in County Kildare said to me this morning that he had thought Fine Gael was the farming community's greatest supporter. Through his involvement in the Irish Farmers Association, he will be cranking up a massive campaign against the Government on this tax. I am not for a moment advocating on behalf of farmers who have more than 100 ha. I am talking about very small farmers who will be crippled by this tax. When we debated the budget the other day, I indicated that the transitional tax will have an impact on one-off shops in small towns and villages in rural areas. At a time when the Government is advocating a policy of living over such shops, we should be incentivising people to tidy and redevelop small vacant retail units in towns and villages all over the country. I believe that because of the 6% charge, this might not happen as quickly as we might like it to happen. It is important to deal with that. I would like to renew my call for the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to address the impact on small farmers of new regulations with regard to fodder, hay and silage. The changes in question, which I discussed here yesterday, were introduced by the Department last week. I have mentioned two agriculture issues.

I thank the Leader for organising next week's statements on child care in the presence of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone. I would like him, through his office, to signal to the Minister that we will be asking questions about the impact of the budget in terms of beefing up social workers. I hope we will get some information on this matter next week. The Minister has said in this House - I checked the record this morning - that she is greatly concerned about the lack of resources and the insufficient number of social workers, who are needed to deal with very vulnerable children. I am giving notice here today that I will question the Minister on this matter next week. I am looking forward to it. I would like the Minister to be equipped to answer my questions. The Leader might signal my intention to the Minister so that she will be able to share with us the budgetary implications of her objective to have more social workers in place in line with the statutory requirements of social services.