Those threatening-----
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Before you saw the package.
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What a major revelation.
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I welcome the opportunity to address the House. I was born on a small farm in east Clare. I know the struggles of my community. I know what it is like for farmers, particularly those with small farms, who have to provide for their families. That has not changed since the time I was going to school. I live among my people. I believe nobody in this House has a monopoly on empathy and nobody has a monopoly on the understanding of the struggles faced by the rural communities. However, there has been an attempt by some this week to usurp all of the knowledge, mar dhea, of that and have sought to present those of us on this side of the House as being somewhat deficient in our capacity to understand the challenges that are being faced. Together with the Minister, Deputy Heydon, and the Ministers of State, Deputy Healy-Rae and Deputy Grealish, we have worked with our stakeholders under the Department of agriculture since the crisis began and since the price of oil has gone out of all proportions following the invasion of Iran. We continued to remain in contact with them. It was not really a surprise to me at the weekend, as we worked through Easter and again through this weekend in trying to develop a package of supports to assist them through their most difficult time, that Sinn Féin early on Sunday decided to put down a motion of no confidence in the Government before a package of measures was even announced. I know that is how politics works and I know that is the role of the Opposition. However, I was somewhat taken, too, by the approach of Independent Ireland. Indeed, one of the Deputies, who happens to be in the House, went on public television and explained what they were letting through the various different ports. We are elected to do certain things in this House but I do not think we are elected, or that anybody has the right, to usurp the authority of the State in terms of deciding who gets what through the ports.
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Ah, will you stop.
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Good man, Richard. The people of Ireland have a great representative.
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