“Farmers work 365 days a year, and 366 days in a leap year, to provide for the people in Ireland.”
“All ye [the Green Party] can do is tax them and send all the funding into Dublin. The funding needs to come down the country.”
Those were the words of independent TD for Limerick County, Richard O’Donoghue, during a debate on the National Oil Reserves Agency (Amendment)and Provision of Central Treasury Services Bill 2020: second stage.
He said the Government has raised enough taxes and proposed that farmers should be incentivised to produce a greener product.
‘Farming cannot rebuild with the amount of taxes’
“I know farmers that have been working for generations for the next generation to take over farms.”
“They can’t do it because every time there is a change of government, it takes a full generation again to get the next generation started.”
He said it should only take two generations to set up a family to go forward and rebuild. “Farming cannot rebuild with the amount of taxes that ye [the government] are giving them.”
He said farmers must be helped as they are assisting the government by “paying €40/tonne extra for fertiliser to help with emissions”.
“What does the government do? It puts on more tax to get milk into the co-ops and charge more to go to shops to get your own food.”
“When farming goes well, every community goes well. Every town and village have been closed down and no infrastructure has been put in place because ye are [the government] is moving all the funding to Dublin.”
Role of farmers
Highlighting the pivotal role of farmers, he said: “Think about it now when you go home this evening when you sit down for a cup of tea and you want a small drop of milk.”
“You bring out the butter and the bread and everything else and think about where that comes from.”
“Farmers are working 365 days a year, yet all the Green Party wants to do is tax them more for its greener way,” he added.
