Danny Healy-Rae warns Kerry LIBRA funding will run out

First of all I want to welcome you all in here and especially Eamon O'Reilly, he's a Kerry man and he has done great work for North and East Kerry partnership and for like we're talking here about the people on the ground and I know you've all been working in your own areas and we especially welcome the two young girls here. And it's great to see you here and to take part in this debate because you are our future and when we won't be here, he'll be here and we'll be depending on it to take over. I have raised the issue up in the chamber in the last number of weeks about work-life balance and I can see and know firsthand where that debate has taken place between many fathers and sons and daughters of course where they're saying they're not going to tie themselves down to what I call the slavery that all the people went through. And as Deputy Fitzmaurice said there, there's so many things, changes, but that's always been the way we've found. We kind of did the work and only gave bare attention to what was happening in governments or in Europe or whatever. We did the work and however we survived, the money aspect of it wasn't considered enough at all. And indeed we see some fellow who owned the lotto going back a few many years ago and they asked him, he was a farmer, see what would he do with the money? Well he said, sure, I'll stay farming away, won't you go that way? And that was his honest answer. You see, and I see what the young people see, they know on their phone what's going on every minute and the way farmers are being vilified on a daily basis. There's a certain section about Dalchamble and that's constantly going on and the regulations and people coming out checking farms and people are terrified when they see someone coming with white coats and books and papers. And, you know, we're all scared of that, like, who's he or who's she, you know, and so, like, and farming is a vocation. The young girl here said it, farming is a vocation because people, you have to stay at it. I mean, if we make no profit this year, you're not going to sell the cows or sell the sheep or whatever. Just, you know, you live in hope and try to stick it out for another year. And we know what have happened, Leader, and what have happened, the rural development companies, the local development companies, and I know as well because I was in the council at the time when they changed. And for the parties, honestly, I don't care who I hurt, for the parties took it over and they shared what they could out of it. And we couldn't get on an LCDC, you know, on any board, no one's an independent. That's the gospel truth. And, look, I suppose for Eamon, how do we ensure we get more funding for Libra and what can we do here as a committee? Yeah, look, I think it's restating. Look, thanks very much for your support and I suppose you're on the ground as much as we are and you do the night work like we do as well. So, it's great that you have that support for us and, as I say, it's really analysing, as Philip has alluded there, the policy coming from Europe, as the deputy said earlier, and seeing, you know, how can we get maximised this for the farmers, for the young farmers coming through and for the rural dwellers. That's the best. But, I suppose, just another point that Doreen alluded to, like, we will be running out of money in Kerry between ourselves, North-East and West Kerry, and this South Kerry Development Partnership by next year. We're 90% committed already. That's, I suppose, because, as Doreen said earlier, Libra is under-resourced as it is. Thomas, we were talking about earlier, there's latent demand there, you know, for it. But, also, it hasn't taken into account inflationary pressures either. So, I suppose, even now, we would like to see, can we get more funding into this programme? And, I think, again, it's, the precedent is there in terms of the Exchequer increasing, potentially, the co-financing rate on this leader programme through National Exchequer. So, I think there's a real need for that. The last time around, there was food and cooperation projects, a central fund. And, I'm not saying that's the way it is, but, as Doreen said, tourism is needed, our budgets are gone. So, I think, both now and into the future, it needs, rural dwellers need to be resourced. Thank you. Very good. And, I suppose, for these young girls here, one of the things that I don't know, do people consider enough at all, is for planning, for building a new house to the north of the coast. And, then, at the same time, we see young couples, and I've seen, back over the years, they build a new house, and the parents, the older generation, are down the road in another house, and then they're gone, and there's a house left idle. And, I often wonder, and I've seen, working perfectly in some instances, where the young couple would build an extension onto the house, whether they have their own city room, their own kitchen, or whatever, and maybe just one bedroom dinner, or whatever. They needn't build as big a house, and because they have the use of the most of the house as well. And, to be doing two things, the young generation wouldn't mind the older code, and the older code might babysit the youngsters. Do you know, like, there's things like that to be considered, and we're not all bad, like, all people, like, you know, so, it might be something that, you might want to say something about that. Yeah, no, I suppose, look, just firstly, to touch on the planning, there, I can't remember exactly the year, kind of when it came out about the once-off planning, myself and my brother both went for planning. I forked out about 10,000, regarding, like, plans and everything for our house. I haven't built that house, my planning has lapsed everything, every test I had to get done, whatever. I cannot now afford to go for planning again. So, to be very honest with you, Deputy, I'm looking at the option of extending our home house. Like, that is an option for us. But the problem, the biggest barrier there, when you look at our membership, when you come back to succession, then when the conversation isn't had about succession, people just assume, okay, I don't have a life on the farm. I don't see, you know, that I have a future on that farm. So, they go away, possibly buy a house, or build a house somewhere else. But we need to incentivise that conversation to actually ensure people are doing the correct thing. Because look at even the derelict houses at the moment. They're everywhere. Yeah. So, just a thing in relation to this urban, strict urban generation clause that's preventing a lot of people who, like, live in a locality and can't get, they can get a site local to them, but they can't get planning permission because of this strict urban generation rule that, you know, was just the first place to stop people coming out from towns, out in the country, but just stopping people who are local to the site. So, we're trying to get that changed with the ministers and with the Taoiseach and all that, and we're hoping to get that changed. Would that help more of you or a lot of you? Absolutely. So, we have been asking for the delivery of the rural planning guidelines, and we look forward to the delivery of them to provide greater clarity for young people. I'm going to touch very briefly on other points that you made, Deputy, as well. You talked about work-life balance, and I suppose for our young farmers, our young farmers are young, they're trained, they're passionate, and they're keenly placed to adopt new technologies and innovation that will support work-life balance and improved environmental sustainability. But, in terms of CAP, we need to see the likes of the TAMS grant being continued to ensure that there's greater support there to allow them to adopt those technologies. You also mentioned the likes of regulations and the white men, white coat men coming. And those regulations and inspections are very important to ensure the traceability, the high standards of food production that we're aware of. But we have to be very careful of over-regulation and over-inspection. And as part of that, we need to also ensure that the mental toll that those place on our young farmers, and our farmers in general, is also protected. So, we need greater mental health supports in rural Ireland for young people and young farmers as well. Thanks. Yeah, very good. Thanks.