Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It was helpful to listen to the consistency of message and approach throughout the House. I acknowledge the Minister is in a coalition government with the Green Party and Fine Gael. I acknowledge the Green Party has set out to close down the mink farming industry.That is the price to be paid for going into a coalition government. One party does not get everything the way it wants it and neither does any other party to the coalition. That is the difficulty. I also acknowledge that the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, came into this House and talked about just transition. He was doing the devil and all in terms of just transition, saying they would stay with rural Ireland and with rural farming, farmers and communities, yet the gap is becoming wider and wider. It is not only three farmers who are affected.

I acknowledge that Michael from Waterville, County Kerry is here as well as Una from Stradbally, County Laois. They have linked in with their public representatives and have shared with me, and no doubt with my fellow Senators, the difficulties they are encountering. Ms Norma Moriarty, a Fianna Fáil councillor from Waterville, County Kerry, said to me on the phone last that all they were looking for, and all she was looking for as a public representative and a member of the Minister's party, was fair play and a just settlement. Let us have a negotiated settlement with these mink farmers. That is not unreasonable.

I am opposed to mink farming in Ireland. I welcome the fact the end of the mink farming industry for a number of reasons but that is not the issue here. We have all moved on. The farmers have moved on from the point of whether they can have a mink farm; they are not arguing to retain their mink farms or their livelihoods. However, they have a long tradition in this business. They have given their working lives, they have brought up their families and that is the principal income that has sustained them. In many ways some of these are generational issues. They have gone on a long time. They have a particularly keen eye and skill for the breeding of mink. They know their industry well and they have survived through difficult times in the past. Over the past ten years a substantial number of years have been good years. In the past two years with Covid-19 most people's businesses have suffered a little. It is about being just, being fair and standing in solidarity with rural communities that the Minister knows well and has served exceptionally well. With that, I echo Councillor Norma Moriarty's call for a negotiated settlement and a fair deal. That is not too much to ask for. I hope in his response he will share with us some of those ideas on those themes.