Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I add my welcome to our newest Member, Senator O'Hara. He is very welcome and I look forward to working with him. It is a great day and I hope he has a nice celebration going into the weekend because it is wonderful to be elected to Seanad Éireann and have one's voice heard here. Congratulations.

I ask for a debate on agriculture. We are all down because of the amount of rain we are having. It is all right for us because we can use an umbrella or decide not to go out but farmers are caught. I have never seen a time when so much land was unpassable. Sheep can hardly walk on a field without poaching it. I do not know how long it will take for a good spell of weather to come along to dry the land. Thousands of hectares of land are not ready to be sown which means there are no crops, potatoes and all other types of crops, sown. We also have cattle in sheds which costs a huge amount of money to keep going.

I would like the Minister for agriculture to come to the House to discuss short-term and long-term actions and supports for our agricultural community and farming families who are going through a very hard time.