Michael Healy-Rae

I am speaking from the heart, if you did not interrupt me, about what we need on this whole issue. That is why I welcome tomorrow. My brother is right when he says the work that the agriculture committee does is good-----

-----because I was in before it today answering questions. Do you know what? Deputy Kenny's questions left a lot to be desired because he did not know what he was talking about. He asked me about schemes that he should have known about. He did not have a clue.

It is no harm to expose that to the IFA.

Deputy Kenny did not know what he was talking about.

I welcome what is going to happen tomorrow. I welcome that there is going to be dialogue. What the Minister wanted all along was for people to sit down and have dialogue. I do not like what has happened over the last week and I will tell you why. I am going to tell the IFA leadership why I do not like it. The most genuine people in the world are at a protest-----

-----at a time when they should be at home because they have enough to be doing at home at this time of the year.

I am sorry we are in this situation, but how it could have been handled was by dialogue, not by entrenchment and not by people saying it has to be this way, like Sinn Féin said it has to be a head and it has to be this and it has to be that.

We stopped fighting and killing each other above in the North by dialogue and by talking, and I recognise 100% the good work Sinn Féin did in that regard, in dialogue, in talking, in negotiating and in using the political system. What I would have liked to have seen happen over the last week was talking and not this entrenchment, because this is getting-----

-----because that is getting the farmers of Ireland nowhere. Again, I am saying this not as a person with my finger wet, like these people across here. I had to listen to another lady a while ago from the Social Democrats talking about farmers in Ireland. She is the woman who, when the Minister brought over Commissioner Roswall about the nitrates derogation and extending it, stood up at a meeting…

I ask the farmers to see what they are seeing tonight and see the people who are working for them, the people who want to work with them and to represent them.

We are their servants. We are there to work for the farmers of Ireland, and not this type of nonsense, this rubbish of throwing down a motion. It is like they put down a motion about leprechauns.

See them for what they are doing - rubbish and nonsense, and they know I mean that.

A lot you know.

Ah sure, keep rabbiting on.

You might clarify that because Francie Gorman would be cross with Brazilian beef.

Will Deputy Gould retract his statement about Francie Gorman?

The vote this morning is welcome because it gives a chance for what I call intensive canvassing to take place before the next vote, which is of paramount importance. One thing I take grave exception to is the comment the Deputy made about the stance of this Government. The stance of this Government over the past 12 months has been clear. It could not be clearer than in writing. In writing it said …

-----to try to get a better deal for Ireland. Whether or not the Deputy realises or acknowledges it, that is exactly what happened. The Government voted the way it said it was going to vote. It could not have been stronger or clearer. I take grave exception to people who tried to undermine the good work of the Minister, Deputy Heydon, over the past 12 months when he was engaging on an extremely r…

-----where we worked diligently on this.

If the Deputy did not know that work was going on, it was his fault.

If he does not know what is happening-----

-----we cannot be responsible for that.

The Deputy is 100% correct in raising this very serious matter because it is a matter of major concern from the point of view of road safety and the spread of TB, although the Department does not acknowledge it to be the major cause he and I would agree it is. We have situations where we did not have TB before and we did not have deer. Now we have deer and we have TB. To answer the Deputy's quest…

-----and it is a matter this Department and Government will continue to keep on top of. If nothing else-----

-----in the interests of road safety and the number of accidents we have on our roads every day because of deer straying on to public roads.