Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. He did not go quite far enough but I appreciate he is working with other Ministers and I respect that. Other Members have made some points. Before I make my own, I am conscious this is not a judicial appointments Bill. We could go on talking about this for the coming months, as we have done in the past. I do not think anyone wants to do that. We have considerable business to cover tonight, clearly, on the basis we are making progress. We will not complete it tonight. That is a certainty at this point. That is unfortunate.

There is a considerable amount to get through. I would like to get past this section. Why not have the best five years of the ten-year cycle? There were good years and bad years. The Minister of State knows there are good years and bad years in farming. There are seasonal and breeding conditions. A considerable number of external conditions impact on income.

If something is important, one can say it time and again to drive the message home. I do not have a difficulty saying that. These people today are doing something that is totally within the law. These people have licences to operate. They are fully compliant in terms of all the regulatory and Revenue requirements. They operate within the law. A very important point to make is that these are law-abiding entrepreneurs. They are in this sector but it could be any sector. Sometimes, we lose sight of that. These people are not operating in some sort of covert way. They are decent, proper, professional people. Whether I like their trade or not, is not a matter that should come into the issue. We know they are looking for fair play.The Minister of State might indicate whether the draft regulations have even been drafted. I presume clever people in the Department are working on them because this is important. I accept we are not negotiating a final settlement on the floor of the Seanad but people spoke earlier about trust and confidence in the process. It is about leverage. That is all they have. They have the leverage of this House. Ultimately, we will be called upon. We will be voting on this. We will have an opportunity to stand up and be counted in respect of our commitments to these farmers, just transition and our commitment to rural communities and rural enterprise. That is a certainty too. I am trying to put myself in the boots of these farmers, so to speak. How can they go away tonight having absolute confidence they will get a fair crack of the whip that acknowledges their investment, their future and that of their families and employees? I ask for even greater flexibility to be afforded in terms of the years that would be used in the cycle to calculate decent and fair compensation for them.