A Tipperary TD has launched a stinging attack on the Government over plans to cull the national herd.
The Rural Independents Group – led by Deputy Mattie McGrath – tabled a motion in the Dáil yesterday aiming to put an end to the proposal.
Up to 65,000 dairy cows a year could be culled as the Government moves to bring the agriculture sector in line with climate targets.
Deputy McGrath said the absence of any government TDs in the Chamber showed a profound disregard for rural communities and the hardworking farmers who sustain them.
“I wonder are we in the right parliament, are we in the right place? Or did ye read the motion – I see ye didn’t oppose it. What motion did ye say ye were going to accept? It’s clearly not this one. So ye’re in Wonderland – Disneyland.
“And when I look at the chamber there are no TDs from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael or the Green Party. Where are they? They’re all not there.”
Mattie McGrath has also accused the Government of saying it’s okay to cull cattle but not deer.
“We can’t have a cull on the deer population who are running riot around this country – the danger to life and limb of car accidents. People being killed with them and cars destroyed but you won’t touch that at all because the ‘do-gooders’, all these so called environmentalists that want to lecture us and tell us that we’re backward, we’re stupid, we’re dirty, we’re somehow not up to it. We are up to it in Ireland and the farmers in Ireland are well up to it. Just leave them alone, don’t strangle them with all the red tape you have with schemes. And a Department of Agriculture that’s not fit for purpose.”
