The amendment is a good one for the simple reason that regulation is a dangerous thing. In the dark of night, a Minister can sign whatever he or she wants if there is a regulation in place and he or she does not have to come into the Dáil. What would have to happen then is that we would have to go to the courts within six months to challenge a regulation. People might bring up something in a month's time that we might not have a bull's notion about that was in a regulation and bar going to the court there will be n…

I agree with the Minister when he talks about consistency and planning right now throughout Ireland. We do not have it at the moment. It could be down to a planner. It could be down to a director of planning. I will give the Minister an example. There are five counties in the west. If you worked in Dublin, bought a house in Dublin and then decided to move down to the west to build a house, four of these local authorities would not ask if you owned a house before. In Roscommon at the moment, which is scandalous in m…

They interpret the decisions made about a plan.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. As the Minister of State and everyone around the country knows, even in areas where there was never a problem with rents, it is becoming a problem. Even in small towns where three, four or five years ago there was not a problem, it is now a problem to get a house. Thankfully, we see some families moving to such areas, which is welcome. However, that is putting on added pressure because there are not enough houses. We have seen projects in the councils where, for one r…

When I saw stuff coming up on my phone today, it reminded me of the song about "the day the music died". For the youngsters of this country, the announcement this evening is devastating. It is devastating not alone for them but for any person who talks about being a politician or being involved in politics because we politicians saw what was coming from NPHET today on our phones. It was not from a Minister. We did not get any briefing. It is similar to every bit of emergency legislation that has come in to this Dái…

It was always there but you would not admit it.

I also welcome the Ceann Comhairle back. I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue, because when people talk about public opinion, there are more places than those around Dublin. Public opinion comes from all around the country. What should be known far and wide is that there are people who might be farming sheep, cattle or whatever and who also breed a horse that might turn out to be good. We must realise what that does for those families. They might know damn all about horses, but it encourages them. It is…

I have seen people near me and the same people are shouting about exports of cattle and all this. To be honest about it if I had as much room as an animal that goes out of this country on a boat, I would nearly be able to sleep on the broad of my back. That is the amount of room they get. We have to be constantly trying to go against other types of society. It is not a big number of people who are out there but they make themselves very loud. In the greyhound sector, the one thing we need to make sure is that we ha…

I thank Deputy Ó Cuív for raising this matter with me. I also thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. This has been going on since 2016. The Minister of State, Senator Hackett, was in the Chamber earlier. Forestry is being help up around the country at the moment because this legislation has not passed. A civil servant has probably written a long speech for the Minister of State. I know he is genuine about things. The facts are that there will be talk of some other Bill or something else being attached…

In fairness to the Minister of State, I do not think he said there were any meetings. I just spoke to him in a corridor, but there was no meeting about this with his staff. Would it be helpful, if it was workable for everyone here in the Dáil, that we would reintroduce the Bill? Would the Minister of State accept it? I know he wants to introduce Government Bills and I understand all that, but this is a bigger picture. The Minister of State spoke about raised bog habitats, but he must remember that a lot of ordinary…

I thank Deputy Cairns for sharing time. In 2015, 852 farmers planted. In 2020, that figure is approximately 100. That will drive home to the Minister of State the message in respect of what has gone on. A year ago, all present supported her in the context of the legislation that was being brought in. When she came before the committee, there was a backlog of 5,000 licences. She spoke about how the Department has gone through so many licences. Today, there is still a backlog of 5,000 licences even though there are n…

Will the Minister of State take measures with regard to the struggling haulage companies and examine what reliefs can be given? I ask this in the context of the Government taking €1 of every €1.70 per litre of diesel. Compared with 16 or 17 months ago, what the Government takes now on every litre of diesel is 40 cent higher. There is room, therefore, for the Government to make an allowance. This fuel is used to haul food, whether it is exported or goes to cities or rural Ireland.

With due respect to the Minister of State, whatever civil servant wrote her contribution does not know much about the transport industry. There are no articulated lorries in Ireland or Europe at the moment that run on electricity. Whoever wrote the contribution needs to go back and read up on the matter. As Deputy O'Rourke pointed out, gas is now more expensive than diesel. It costs €18,000 to convert a lorry from diesel to gas. As Deputy O'Donoghue pointed out, the new Euro 6 engine has drastically reduced emissio…

I welcome what the Minister of State said about research being carried out and I understand all that, but the crisis is now. I will be the first to admit there is a grant to help people move from diesel to gas, but the cost of doing so is probably €17,000 or €18,000. They will pay more than if they had kept diesel. That is a fact. I reiterate there is a difference of 40 cent between the revenue on diesel the Government was taking in last year and the revenue this year. In light of the crisis with regard to the haul…

I commend Deputy Harkin on bringing this Bill forward. I know she has put an enormous amount of work into it. Credit unions are the life and soul of many rural areas from which Bank of Ireland and some of the other banks have absconded, including rural areas and small towns such as Glenamaddy, where once there were two banks and where St. Jarlath's Credit Union, which was known as Glenamaddy credit union, is the only thing; or Ballyhaunis in County Mayo, which is a fairly big town. The credit unions have tried to s…

I ask about the numbers involved in the BDGP and BEEP-S schemes in 2020 and the numbers taking part in the BDGP and BEEP-S schemes in 2021. Will the Minister make a statement on the matter?

I thank the Minister. Is it worrying that 23% or 24% of farmers have not gone for the roll-over? Has the Department done an analysis of the reasons for this? Was it because of the non-compliance of some farmers? Was it because of inspections? Was it because farmers were not interested? What are the reasons? We would think more farmers would be getting involved. I know we could not go for any more than what was there. We see a drop-off of 20% or 25%. We are talking about 17,683 as against 23,365. These are the figur…

Would it be the case that farmers who looked at this were tied into the five years because the only way they were going to get out was force majeure ? To be frank, it would be an awful lot easier for people to go into a one-year scheme if it was attractive because they would not be tied in for a longer period of time. Would it be the case that one quarter of these farmers felt it was too cumbersome or that there was something wrong with the scheme? It is very important that we do an analysis of what is going on. If…

I welcome yesterday's announcement on agriculture. I agree with convergence, as outlined in Pillar 1. With Pillar 2, there is much concern among the communities that deliver LEADER that there is a shortfall of approximately €70 million. This is at a time when communities and especially the agricultural sector are stepping up to the mark when it comes to climate action. In this regard, last Monday a group of us from the agriculture committee visited Devenish Farm in Meath. We spent five or six hours going around the…

I thank the Minister. We have spoken about this many times but talking about it and doing it are two different things. My understanding from the people involved with LEADER for many years is that it will be approximately €70 million or €80 million down. Will the Government make up that deficit if it exists? It is a simple and straightforward question. We have spoken about hedgerows. I drive every day from Galway and for every yard of the road, there are plenty of hedgerows. My understanding is they should be counte…