Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and commend him on his leadership in this area. He challenges us all at times in regard to the importance of our environment. In that regard, I join my colleagues and say again that the COP27 talks were a success. People question whether they were successful but when you get most of the world's nations coming together, meeting, discussing and acknowledging that we have a huge challenge on our hands in regard to the environment, that is success because at least people are recognising that there is a problem. It important also to put on the record that in the budget just gone by, we have moved forward a good deal in terms of anaerobic digestion use among the farming community, where €12 million has now been committed over the coming three years to deal with this issue. Farmers want to buy into this and play their part. In regard to solar panels, not a week passes when I do not get calls, mostly from farming people keen to progress with solar panels. That is now beginning to happen. The clear point is that once they are engaged with and the initiatives are in place, farmers will make a huge contribution in this country to climate action. That is evident. Reflecting on some of the old farming schemes about tidying up the farm with proper fencing, farmers adopted those schemes and were willing to work to make the changes.

I join with my colleague about the rail links in this country. I agree that it is a disgrace. Donegal for example has no rail link to it. Successive governments have to be blamed for their lack of interest in rail. In times gone by, we had railways up into Cavan, from Dromod into my part of the country on the Roscommon-Leitrim border. All those rail links and tracks were there. I back Senator Chambers’s comments in regard to the western corridor. We should actually looking throughout the country to see where we can develop spurs of rail tracks. I understand we may have to purchase land and there is the whole system of planning that has to be gone through. However where it is simple to do it we should put short rail spurs into place and link those spurs into other areas, particularly where we have a high level of tourism. My own town has Strokestown House to which 60,000 or 70,000 people come to see the National Famine Museum every year. We are fortunate at the moment because Bus Éireann provides a good bus service along the N5 national primary route. However, if we want to remove cars or certainly not let car use expand, then in rural areas particularly we have to be innovative and radical and look at how we can put short spurs in place linking up rail from one area to another. That is important.

The Minister is sometimes misrepresented but he often says that all he wants farmers to do is to have a proper income and a proper standard of living while looking after the environment. We need to bring people with us. I have just referred to the unfortunate situation in my part of the country on Lough Funshinagh where a challenge was taken by an environmental group about work that was being done there. The law is the law and the law has decided, so we cannot proceed as we were with that. However we need to talk to those people. Around that area in County Roscommon, that flooding has destroyed the flora, the fauna, the bird life and the wildlife. I invite the Minister to go there himself, I will bring him there, to see the damage done. The fact is that we now cannot proceed with that pipe, which was only going to take away the excess water; nobody wanted to drain all the water away from that turlough. The fact that we cannot do that now is doing enormous damage to the environment there, aside from the farmers, their land and houses that have been destroyed. That was an issue we should have been able to solve. I am only making the point that if we want to make real progress in such areas where we come up with issues like this, we must find a way of working with the people. I have been involved in local politics for a long time and national politics for less time and I can say one thing about Irish people, which is that 90% of the people will sit down, negotiate and listen to reason. Where we have problems in communities, we need to be very careful while protecting our environment. We must acknowledge that. It is so important now to protect the environment. We must also look at areas like the Lough Funshinagh issue where the damage that has now been done by that excess water is extraordinary, not only to the farmland and the houses but to the environment. I know a bit about this from my college days and the damage that can do. That is a pity. That aspect has been completely lost in the whole argument about Lough Funshinagh. Today, however, we are looking at the overall situation. I commend the Minister on what he is doing and will work with him. From a rural Ireland perspective, the vast majority of farmers with whom I deal want to co-operate and do the right thing. They acknowledge that the protection of the environment is most important.