An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-21
============================================================

Malcolm Noonan (GP), Agricultural Panel

I want to be associated with the comments in relation to our colleague and friend, Senator Eileen Flynn. What she has gone through is appalling. It behoves us all to be there with her and stand with her, and to challenge the social media companies, in particular.
I want to reference two specific items. Today is world curlew day. We have seen some positive results in County Monaghan from the head starting programme, which was run by Breeding Waders EIP, led by Mr. Owen Murphy, down on Lough Ree. This is a collaborative piece of work that involves the National Association of Regional Game Councils, NARGC, through the mink eradication programme, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, local landowners and local communities. It also includes Fota Wildlife Park because they take the eggs from the nests and head start them, incubate them, in Fota Wildlife Park and release them.
I was fortunate enough to be out on Lough Ree with Mr. Murphy and the team last year when the birds were released. There have been some successes, but we are talking about a bird that has experienced a 98% decline since 1980. It is quite shocking. For all of our efforts, the bigger plan needs to be around landscape scale restoration. We have these huge interventions that are taking place. Nest sites need predator control 24-7. We have broken landscapes and habitats. The Government needs to invest significantly. I will use the opportunity of today to welcome the efforts that have been made, are ongoing and are proving successful up around the midlands and in the north west.
The second issue I want to raise is the traditional farm buildings grant. It is a popular grant scheme among farmers. It deals with not only the conservation and restoration of a part of our vernacular heritage but also had an effect because these are habitats for barn owls, swifts and other wildlife. The grant is very popular among farming organisations and farmers in particular. It is administered by the Heritage Council and the funding is in place through the Department of agriculture. Unfortunately, funding this year was cut, for whatever reason. It was not cut by a small percentage but was cut in half from €1.5 million to €750,000. Is it the intention of the Department of agriculture to get rid of the scheme? As I said, it has been oversubscribed in previous years, in my experience. It is about the protection and restoration of local vernacular heritage. It often employs local contractors and local heritage and conservation skills. As I said, many farmers want to hold onto these buildings in their farmyards and the grant scheme has been a real lifeline in doing that. I want to question the Minister in that regard. Why was this really important grant scheme cut in half from 2025 to 2026?

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-21