Ollie Crowe (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy McConalogue. I thank him again for his help on this issue, both now and previously.

From my own point of view, this is a controversial topic. The Government is taking a rather extraordinary step to enforce the end of the sector. That is fine and probably many people welcome it. As been outlined by other Senators, however, at the end of the day, we are shutting down the sector. It is essential this is done in a manner that leaves those who have made this sector their work for all their lives feeling respected and that they were treated with fairness. That word “fairness” has been used by all Members in the House today.

I have been a Member of this House for nearly two years. I have never previously tabled an amendment to a Government Bill. In that regard, I want to highlight in particular that the current approach would see only redundancy being provided for all statutory levels. Obviously, this is the bare minimum. We demand and encourage private companies to provide, where possible, additional redundancy that reflects the commitment their staff have given. This will have a massive impact on 40 members of staff and 40 families. Therefore, for the Department’s proposal to cover only statutory redundancy seems to me to be a mistake. I ask the Minister to consider this matter. I have no doubt the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, will.

To put this into the context of a human point of view, I, no more than other Senators, met the families last week and spoke to them at length. That was the first occasion on which I met the people. I know from my own experience of running a business about what is right and what is wrong. The point that hit home to me while hearing about the 40 families was that, in one of those cases, I was told people would move from the village in which they currently live. As a result, there would be one and possibly two fewer pupils going to the national school. There were tears in those people’s eyes while they told me that national schools would lose a teacher as a result. This is the impact this is having on rural Ireland. I do not think that should happen.

No more than Senator Boyhan and other Senators in the House, when I spoke to the families, I had done a bit of research on the matter. In terms how the compensation is calculated, I believe the proposal of the five-year term needs to be reviewed. Certainly, as I said, I know from my own experience in business that there are periods when everything is going well and when business is going well. There are also periods when that is not the case. I think a five-year term is too minimal and needs to be broadened. There is a clear and evident trend that this industry has rises, peaks and falls. A longer term over ten years would be fairer to all, for those affected and for the Department. I would provide that it would be a fair reflection and I would welcome the Minister's thoughts on this.

I would also like to see more communication with the three farmers affected, regardless of whether an agreement can be reached in all topics. It would be beneficial to have open lines of communication, as the Leader of the House, Senator Doherty, has said. There should be close contact so that both the farmers and the Department can have a better understanding of where each side is coming from. I will leave it at that for now. I thank the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, again for his time today.