Prior to the announcement of the areas to be reclassified as more severely handicapped it was expected that the entire constituency of Cavan-Monaghan would be reclassified. While County Cavan was so classified only 73.1 per cent of County Monaghan was granted this status. This is hard to understand. The comparable figure for County Longford is 100 per cent, 94 per cent for County Clare and 86 per cent for County Kerry.
This announcement was the source of much frustration and anger. In common with other Oireachtas Members, I have been inundated with telephone calls during the past week or so. My problems were compounded by the fact that I only received from the Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry ten of the 14 pages listing the townlands to be reclassified. I duly forwarded these pages to the secretaries of the various cumann who wanted to know why I had sent incomplete information. I have now received the full list, ten days after the announcement was made, which I will forward to them with a letter of apology.
The problem in County Monaghan is that while some of the best land has been reclassified some of the worst land has not. Let me give one example. In the 1960s three parishes were selected for inclusion in a pilot scheme. It was accepted by agricultural officers at the time that the soil in the area of land stretching from Clontibret to Aghabog was shallow, yet it has not been reclassified. I ask the Minister to put an appeal structure in place as small farmers in particular have a legitimate right to have their farms included.
In reply to a question tabled by me on 11 October the Minister stated that the Government made submissions to the EU Commission on the extension of disadvantaged areas and the reclassification of certain areas from less severely handicapped to more severely handicapped status in November 1993 and October 1994; that the Commission asked for clarification of some aspects of the submissions and additional information to assist it in its examination of the proposals; that the Government's response was transmitted to the Commission in April 1995 and that a number of meetings have since taken place. What was the purpose of these meetings?
There are 6,500 herd owners within the country where the average farm size is 40 acres. In 1950 about two-thirds of farmers supplied milk, but this figure has since been reduced to one-third or less than 2,000. Two-thirds of these are entirely dependent on income from dry stock and suckler cows.
There was much discontent following the publication of the results of the 1989 review, so much so that I and other members of my party conducted our own study of DEDs as did the IFA. I asked the Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry to compare the fact sheets compiled by its agricultural officers with those produced by us, but this was not acceptable.
In 1991 when the appeals panel was established — it comprised representatives of the farm bodies — the criteria were broadened to include notional farm income, etc. It should have been brought in. When it was set up I wrote to Mr. Liam Conlon, the secretary, as follows:
In 1993 the economic and social committee of the European Communities visited the Border areas and in a subsequent report recommended that all of County Monaghan should be designated as severly handicapped. [I sent him a copy of the report]. The British-Irish Interparliamentary Body at its meeting in February 1990 in a discussion on the need for infrastructural development in Border areas, recommended that the criteria for qualification should be revised... I also request that your committee contact Teagasc, which has reports of the result of the pilot scheme carried out in the north-west Monaghan area in the 1960s, none of which were ever designated as severly handicapped. I also enclose a copy of a report from the North-Eastern Regional Development Organisation related to land quality.
That was definite information and I do not want the Minister to speak about criteria. We have clear, irrefutable evidence that a wrong has been done to small farmers in that area. I made the same plea when my party was in power but at that time its hands were tied. On this occasion the base has been broadened and I thought the area should have been included. I appeal to the Minister to set up the mechanism I suggest.
