ANC motion and Good Friday Bill
A heated exchange followed over Sinn Féin's natural-constraint motion and Fianna Fáil's vote against it. Senator Daly defended his party's position as supporting the motion in principle but objecting to its wording, while the Leader and others responded with political barbs before the debate moved on.
I note the disappointment of Senator Conway-Walsh at our voting against an amendment to the Order of Business last Tuesday. I put on record that we voted against an amendment to the Order of Business, contrary to Sinn Féin press releases, etc., stating that we voted against motion. We, in fact, agreed with the main principles of the motion, but we will-----
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Fianna Fáil should have voted for it.
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-----not be brought into knee-jerk reaction without discussing; it was to be accepted without discussion. While we agree with the main principles of the motion, the wording, as stated, is too narrow.
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Sinn Féin brought it in and played politics with it.
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Senator Paul Daly was gracious, in fairness to him.
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Sinn Féin played politics with it.
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As the Senator rightly said at the outset, I was at a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine where I felt duty bound to be, and I expected all the agriculture representatives of the parties would have been, when this kind of political, cynical stroke was pulled last Tuesday evening.
We agree in principle with the motion, but we feel that the wording as it stands is too narrow. The motion ignored multiple biophysical constraints. It referred specifically to mountain and hill areas, which is unrepresentative of the farming community at large. We need a debate on the matter. We got an email on Friday indicating that there would be a proposal to amend the Order of Business again today which we again will not support in a knee-jerk fashion. If and when the Leader can give us a commitment that the Minister will come to the House with the facts and figures as to how the current underspend in the RDP, TAMS and GLAS will be allocated towards the ANC scheme where we can have a full debate and are allowed the opportunity to make amendments to the motion, we will then agree to an amendment to the Order of Business.