Sixteen hill farmers on the Knockmealdown Mountains in west Waterford are facing the imposition of rent increases of 900% by a British absentee landlord. This increase will put them off the land. These are generational farmers; families who have farmed the mountains for generations and centuries. I have met them several times. Only last week, Deputy Cullinane and I were up on the mountains with them. What is happening is a stark injustice. It has echoes of darker times when absentee landlords, British aristocrats, pushed Irish farmers off the land. That is a comparison that should concern all of us, and it certainly should concern the Government. It is 2026 not 1846, yet farmers in Waterford are being forced off land that their families have farmed for generations. The Government is making matters worse. At the very moment that these farmers are under the most pressure in this land dispute, their farm payments are being withheld. The Government is holding them over a barrel and is strengthening the landlord's hand. The Government and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine are taking a side in this and are pushing these farmers towards the edge. I raised this issue previously with the Minister of State's colleague the Minister, Deputy Heydon. There have been protests. There has been strong public support. This has been raised by Congressmen and MPs in the United States and Britain, but there has been no action on the part of the Government. That is not acceptable. This cannot continue. These farmers are doing everything they can to remain on the land. Will the Minister of State ensure that these payments are released to them? Will he meet the farmers to hear their concerns and stories? Will he clearly support their right to remain farming on the land in question and make a statement in the Dáil in the interests of supporting them and other hill farmers and sheep farmers in maintaining their way of life and agricultural activity?

Sentiment score: -0.00

The Minister of State and this Government need to make a clear intervention here. I am more than happy to say that what is happening here is wrong, that the demand of a 900% rent increase by a British absentee aristocratic landlord on Irish farmers is wrong. I would urge the Minister of State to make that statement and for his colleague, the Minister, Deputy Heydon, to make a similar statement. That would carry an awful lot of weight. To return to the farm payments issue, it is important to put on the record here again that all farm payments are being withheld from farmers who are unable to produce this commonage letter from the aristocratic absentee landlord. Effectively, the proof that Government requires to show that these farmers are actively farming, on these lands that are in dispute and on all other lands they are farming, is a commonage letter from the landlord with whom they are in dispute, and that is an unfair burden. It is an unfair intervention into this dispute and it is not necessary. There are creative means by which the Department can establish that these farmers are actively farming land and ensure that they have some kind of income rather than holding them over a barrel while this dispute continues.

Sentiment score: -0.18