They closed the Garda stations all around rural Ireland.

Let him tell us about the day with the holding up of Joan Burton.

You held up the bonnet of Joan Burton's car. Was that law and order?

The nitrates derogation reduction becomes a reality from 31 December, changing from 250 kg N/ha to 220 kg N/ha. This means we will have to slaughter 40,000 heavily-in-calf cows this coming year because there is no other market for them, and 160,000 in the next four years. Farmers will have reduced incomes, and smaller farmers will become unviable. Tim Herlihy, from Inches in Rathmore, has 58 cows now. He worked hard to bring his herd up to this figure. He has told me that his adviser has told him that he will have …

What about the sewers and treatment plants?

He did not try because he sat at home.

The political point is that if we do not sell food from Ireland people will get it elsewhere. It is very clear to me that neither the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin or Charlie McConalogue put up any real fight to stop this. Consumers will have to get food. There are a million more people in Ireland. I hope the Government is not thinking of slaughtering some of them. I would not trust the Government if Eamon Ryan asked it to do it. The cow is the easy option. What about the treatment plants? The Government is making no a…

He is spending two weeks in Dubai, where they do not give one tuppence about him because they will drill for oil, shove the land out into the sea and they will build cities, and we cannot build a house here because people cannot get planning permission to put a roof over their heads. That is what we have here.

He is demonising farmers.

Sitting on your backsides at home will not sort it out.

These thugs and blackguards do not deserve the name of any political category, such as calling them "far right" or "right". They are thugs, blackguards, thieves and robbers. I cannot support the Minister because she has not supported the gardaí right around the country, whether it is in Kerry or in Dublin, or wherever. Instead, she is supporting a Commissioner who does not have the support of the Garda members. The critical question concerns what amount of time was lost in mobilising more gardaí and bringing them t…

Were they up here minding Leinster House?

Why were they not-----

Why did they not get a direction from higher authority to go down there? They did not get it.

I heard Deputy Tóibín say it takes eight months for the local authority to turn around a house where he comes from. To make a point I have raised several times before, there are many houses, even in the Killarney electoral area, that have been void and vacant for four and five years. That is the gospel truth. I was made promises in this regard the year before last, last year and this year. Whatever is the matter, there are still several homes vacant and void, and no notice in the world is being taken of them. The n…

Imagine that, a Cheann Comhairle. This is regarding the CIÉ superannuation scheme of 1951 and the impact on 2,279 CIÉ salaried workers. A number of these people visited our group in Leinster House 2000 a couple of weeks ago, one of them being Christy Murphy from Tralee, who was an inspector in his time and managed school transport for CIÉ, and there were a number of ladies with him who had very important roles in their time. They operated as inspectors, supervisors or managers and an awful lot of responsibility was…

I do not know what kind of a court it is, a Cheann Comhairle, but the whole story is wrong anyway.

The Minister of State has a copy of the same document as me, does he not?

In light of the dedicated service these people gave, all we are here for is to see that fair play is given to everyone who comes to us. This is a very serious matter. The Minister of State said it was before the Labour Court, but it has been going on for so long and these people are so old. They are now at an age when they want fair play. If this carries on for two or three more years, how many of them will die away? Is that what CIÉ wants? I ask the Minister of State to intervene to ensure fair play is administere…

I should have mentioned that Deputy Mattie McGrath is unable to be here. He was part of this Topical Issue.