Danny Healy-Rae blasts TB control, payments delays and park buys

I want to thank the Minister, first of all, for coming here before us this evening and his officials. And I want to wish our new chairman well with this meeting and indeed all the members that are here. It would be nice that we'd all work together and help each other because it's in the best interest of farmers that we do. I suppose I have a lot of issues, Minister, but there's no talk. I don't know how to judge this thing. And Acres, I have said before, what I've been told and all the people that I'm trying to get payments for, that the system is broken down. Now, we have been involved in plant iron, school iron and everything. If something breaks down, it has to be fixed or else get rid of it. But this system is operating for two years now and it should be streamlined and fixed long before now, before you ever came in here as a minister. So it's not acceptable that people are waiting for last year's money and the middle of this year. It's going to throw their taxes in disarray because they'll be. So that's one of the things. And I'm asking you to pay the people you're getting the money and you have it to pay it out. I can't understand what's wrong. The TB is surely a serious issue. And I'm the very same as Deputy Aird here. I have farmers that went down last October and November with herds of milking cows. And whatever they got that time, there was one farmer, he had 42 cows. And when he went to replace him in April, he could only buy 28 for what he had got. Because the price of cattle and everything has gone up. And that man, Lincoln, was way back now for this year and for coming years because he can't get up to the level that he was. Heifers and the whole damn lot have gone. And I mean, it has to be recognised at this stage, Chairman, that TB is in boiled air, caused by the spread of it, by deer and badgers. And there's no control. We have 27,000 acres of a national park in Kerry. And they're roaming wild out of it day in, day out. They're hunting people in the road. They're making smithereens of cars. And it's absolutely terrible. And then, on top of that, I'm asking you this question and you can answer it. Are you going to continue the practice of buying up farms against young farmers in Kerry? He bought two or three of them last year. Against local farmers. He gave 440,000 for a farm in Kilgallen that was only worth a small bit more than 200. Against local farmers that were trying to expand. I'm asking you to decide from that. Who bought it? The national parks and the government. You've got the wrong minister here now for national parks. Right. If you stick with the agenda. All right. That's grand. That's grand. I'll keep going. The new cap, one and two, has to be retained to keep farmers going. And we have an awful problem. You see, you said there's 133,000 farmers. How many will be there next year or thereafter? Because so many young farmers can't see, young would-be farmers, can't see that they're going to continue the slavery and the racket that their parents went through to build it up and to keep the thing going. And they're going to go for an easier life to Australia, a five-day week. And you see, we must appreciate, what I'm trying to say to the minister, we must appreciate the farming community more. And appreciate their food. And we have some other lady inside here telling us that we shouldn't tamper with foxes until they have them alone. Do you know the damage that they have done to sheep farmers? Then the couple left in Kilgarton, many of the couples, they say the York can only defend one lamb and the other lamb is taken. That's what's happening with the foxes. They have the place overrun. Badgers, deer, and foxes. And then we're supposed to say nothing. We have, I'm asking you, you say about fishing, that we have about 2,000 vessels. Are you still, how to say, asking fishermen to go for the scrappage? I mean, in the 1600s, the fishing industry was developed by the British. And we seem to have it left slip, slip, and not just alone the fishermen that are affected, to the communities. And go back to the TV. Other countries, we're after about 46 years of TV testing. And we seem to be exactly the same way we are. I'm hoping that you're consulting with farmers, and I hear you saying that you're going to make a decisive decision. Decisive decisions are needed. But we need to compensate farmers. And it's absolutely terrible. I'm hearing that there's a proposal to put up on the screen when we're selling cattle, that this farmer has gone down once, twice, three times, or whatever, or so many years ago. So, that will give the buyers, the cattle will be bought up, and they'll be sent to the factory, and they'll be sent wherever. And the farmer that's selling, his price and his value that he'll get will be reduced. And at the same time, the animal will be used the same as if he got top price for it. I'm asking you to be fair about it, because the farmers on the side of the road, farmers on the side of the road, and through the hills and greens of Kerry, can't live in fresh air. And they need to get properly recompensed for the work that they're doing, Trojan work. In spite of all the adversity, I'm asking you to answer me what you can, in the important things, because this is a very... And we need more time with you, Minister Wood. Thank you for coming, and I'd appreciate whatever answers you can give me. Okay, thank you very much, Deputy Healy-Ray, and for raising those points across a wider range of topics. And I agree with your sentiment about wanting to work together, and I want to work with the members of this committee. We'll have many ups and downs and many issues that will be challenging for the sector, but we'll meet them face-on and try and deal with them as best we can. And acres, you talked about broken plant machinery in terms of fixing the problem, and if there's something broken, you fix it. And the challenge is that there wasn't one fix that was needed on the acre side. There was individual interventions needed across a range of different cohorts. That meant, for want of your analogy, there was a number of things broken in the machine, and we're fixing one thing at a time, but fixing it permanently, that doesn't come back again. So it is hugely frustrating for those impacted, but we have, you know, in terms of the interim payment, I know that request was made this year, I did not want to have any intervention this year. When we were up to a scale that we had built up momentum or doing weekly payment runs, anything that would undermine the balancing payment to the 4,000 to 5,000 farmers who weren't affected. So we have been in the space here of working through the cohorts, paying out farmers on a weekly basis. The cohort who are, of that 5,300, 1,100 of them are from 2023. So when we resolve them in the coming weeks, they get knocked off the 24 list as well, because they're all in the 1 and being counted as double. So we are getting there, we are making progress, and the commitment I give is that those solutions are a permanent one. In relation to TB, you know, like farmers have an option to take a book value at the time. If they take the, they are compensated at the value of the animal on the date it's reactor. I'm going to come back to you as well, Deputy Aird, as well. And there is that limit that is, and the maximum amount that is on that. But if you wait for months for evaluation on that, and obviously we've seen the increase in the price of beef, that has been a challenge there. Can I say in response to you, and, no, no, just let me make this point, please, Chair. In relation to you and Deputy Aird, and the points you make around compensation, do you know what my abiding determination is? It's to make sure less farmers are in this position, and that those farmers have a way out of the mess they're in. So we can spend all day here talking about compensation and individual measures, and the points you make are valid ones, but it won't resolve the problem. I am determined that we fix this problem once and for all. We need to give the other speakers a call.