Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I also extend a céad míle fáilte to our guests.

I join Senator Kyne in welcoming the announcement of the Ministers, Deputies Humphreys and Darragh O'Brien, on behalf of the Government regarding the CE and Tús schemes.The Senator spoke about the six or seven important changes in that regard. It should be noted that these are in addition to changes introduced earlier this year that allowed participants on CE schemes and the RSS who were more than 60 years of age to remain on those schemes until they reached retirement age.

These schemes are vital, not just to rural areas, but to urban ones as well. With our parliamentary party, the Deputy Leader, Deputies Ó Cuív and Calleary and I have for some time been meeting supervisors and people involved in these schemes. They will be happy with this Government announcement. It is an employee's market in terms of jobs at the moment, and if we did nothing, we would find it difficult to fill these schemes. As Senator Kyne mentioned, these schemes are important for parishes, Tidy Town groups and groups that provide services for older people, social services and disability services. They play a major role, so it is important that the Government continue to invest in them. In excess of €500 million is being spent on them annually. The news is welcome.

I will now turn to a hardy annual. Senator Hackett, the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, knows what I am going to mention. We are already starting to speak about flooding along the River Shannon again, particularly along the callows. It is not that the areas are becoming flooded. Rather, most of the farmlands there are in the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS, under which farmers cannot cut meadows until 1 July. Land has become particularly wet, and even though the level of rainfall so far has been below the summer average, the persistent rain over recent days has led many people to grow concerned. There is good co-operation with the Office of Public Works, OPW, and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is monitoring the situation, but it is important that the weir gates be kept open. I understand that most of them are, which will allow the water to flow towards Limerick without causing any damage along the way. It is important for the farmers that we not let their lands flood. They are involved in GLAS and cannot cut their meadows before 1 July. If the current weather continues – the forecast does not look god – then there could be some difficulties. We must stay focused on this matter and remember that these farmers need fodder this year in particular.