Danny Healy-Rae warns of 'daylight robbery' over land designations
Danny Healy-Rae addressed land designations, the proposal for a land observatory and national parks land purchases, arguing that designation rules are restricting farmers, payments have stopped and independent data is needed. He criticised plans to raise designated land from 13% to 30% and said a stronger land commission may be required.
Land designations and farmer impact
Healy-Rae cited examples such as Hinaria designations that prevent planting or forestry and leave land unusable. He warned that payments to designated lands have stopped and called the loss "daylight robbery," arguing that increased designation – proposed to rise from 13% to 30% of land – is worrying for a small country.
Call for independent land data and a land observatory
Healy-Rae queried who would run a proposed land observatory and whether it would be aligned with the Department of Agriculture. He argued the data must be independent and trusted, not supplied solely by auctioneers who have a commercial interest, and questioned whether the observatory would have the power to intervene in land sales.
Land commission and questions of enforcement
Recalling the historical role of the land commission in reallocating marginal holdings, Healy-Rae said a commission with "teeth" might be needed now to rein in problems. He also cautioned that member states are being left discretion on enforcement and that balancing sellers' rights with buyers' public-interest claims is a difficult policy choice.
National parks purchases, local access and safety concerns
Healy-Rae described national parks acquiring large tracts, including 27,000 acres linked to earlier donations and smaller local purchases of 57 acres, limiting local access to land for farming. He raised concerns about unmanaged land growing rhododendron, harbouring deer, lacking fencing, creating road safety risks and making it harder for young farmers to source land.
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First of all I want to welcome the witnesses here and I suppose certainly I remember the land commission as well and while many people were dreading them certainly they played a vital role in certain instances where fellows weren't able to survive or on the bitter land they had and they got moved up to Midlands and to better land and then where there was a farm not being used and it was right beside me and the owner got a chance to sell it or else it was going to be divided between 16 neighbours around him and at the time I remember it well and he got so many and the reason was he wasn't he wasn't tilling one acre of land and it was quite a big farm and there was 40 acres of good land in it and there was maybe just much of middling land but it was all fairly sound ground like the north side and and it gave but we need we need something like that now I mean we have we have instances of of the Hinaria and cases designated for Hinaria and they're made useless they can't plant them for forestry but they can't do what what they want to do with them and now there's talks of more designation I think there's 13 percent of of the the land of Ireland under different designations and they're talking bring it up to to 30 percent but uh we're very small country chairman and uh it's terrible to uh to think uh that that's happening under our noses and that is europe is uh ordering this or designing this these schemes and then uh like the Hinaria when they're made um when they're designated for a bit in and they were getting payments there's no payments now that's I often call that daylight robbery you often hear thieves come in the middle of the night and robbing maybe machinery or robbing money but doing that to farmers in the middle of the daylight it has to be daylight robbery when when they can do that and get away with it I I've been listening to there with you know the this proposal that he have for um a land observatory or whatever and that we have data who are you expecting to who's going to is it aligned with the department of agriculture who are you expecting would form this like it has to be trusted like it has to be independent that you couldn't like at the moment most of the land that has come from the charter surveyors of ireland or the cso as connor mentioned like the charter surveyors of ireland that is fed in by auctioneers and whether it's an uncomfortable truth or not like the the like you know auctioneers have a vested interest in keeping business coming in through the door so you want someone that whether it's a farmer or the general public or a politician like yourself are looking at its trusted data that's where you want you want independent trusted data and see um because would he have teeth then to see what should be done or it have no teeth to to stop a place of being sold or well we i suppose i'll come back to deputy if it's morris's point like on you know having a land commission with teeth and having to put definitely we i suppose we we discussed that and discussed that with partners like the commission themselves don't want to give it to you and they're leaving it optional for member states to come in and the reason they don't is because you're constantly trying to balance this debate if the person selling the land has equal rights to maximize its value versus the person trying to buy it to get value for it so um it boils down to like from a personal perspective i think it should have teeth because i think the the horse is bolted now and we need to kind of rein it back in a little bit but whether ireland is ready for something like that with teeth is a whole other question so um that i that that's that's a debate for another day but i suppose in its first iteration we're working as i keep going back to we're very much working in an information vacuum around we we have a conscious of the time we have a situation in kenny where the the national parks are buying up land and to start out with in killarney they've got 27 000 acres of land uh going back to the tortoise or something that was donated to the state so they have 27 000 of acres it is growing rhododendron it is harboring deer and they have no fins around it and uh they have money to maintain it and at the same time they come down to killarney and buy 57 acres and and give um give as the word says london for it and and and and the local fellas couldn't get a look in it likewise they bought more open uh going back for dingle at the top of the corner pass we don't know how much millions they gave for that but i mean uh we're talking here every day how we can better uh young farmers and try to get young farmers involved when they can't when they can't source a bit of land and buy it you know that they have no hope because they need to expand and um the the kind of things that's happening in our country i mean they won't even fence the land and and they're leaving the deer out on the road and there's people being killed and and and then they want to have more of it and do the same thing with it uh if the farmer has an animal and it happened last week and the animal goes out on the road and breaks a car or hurt somebody he's responsible or his insurance is responsible to see the question is can he do anything after uh uh if you're you know if if you get uh this uh what you call it going uh land observatory uh going will it how will it help us and things like that and um that's we we if we felt that he could uh intervene and play a role uh we'd be all mad for it we've nothing against you we we we like you say we don't know what's happening we see and hear about fellow with 1100 cows selling the cows and he's putting in solar panels i mean uh again i say we were a small little country and i was brought up to kind of cultivate and try to do the best with every corner square square inch that we had because we didn't have much uh and to to to make the best we could out of it that's the the kind of uh uh you know we will brought where we were brought up and i'm i'm sad to see that's gone totally evil now and i don't know if if we could make a case to get teeth and have poles uh we i'm sure every member here would um before i put we we don't know what what benefit he'd be we've nothing against you so i don't know anybody i couldn't have anything against you but and we we we like to hear him talking and we're glad he came in here but we have and i know deputy and deputy fitzmaris and the others agree as well we need to ensure that as much of our land is uh is kept producing uh producing something whether it is milk or dairy or grain or whatever it is that's that's the kind of a frame of mind we're in rather than uh you know uh they're talking about solar panels that they're not the the bee's knees either like the and the fellas that haven't put in they'll learn that about that fairly quickly too because um there there's problems there as well it isn't going to be directly into their pocket and the the sooner they realize that but look we're glad that he came in and uh it's something for us to think about and uh the chairman uh we appreciate uh he is uh you know uh he was right to to to ensure that he came in here and that we have this so um thank you for coming in thanks thanks everybody um look i have um just to respond if i might briefly to uh just to to pick up i mean you like the other deputies here have acknowledged that we have a crisis and we are on the edge of a you know very serious situation particularly in relation to new and entrant farmers um i think that the feeling in the room if i'm picking it up correctly is that something must be done that the pilot land observatory may be toothless but at least it's the start and it is as a data gathering exercise it's vitally important but i would just interject on behalf of the environmental issue that the the corporate overseas land investor is certainly not the custodian of the land that we so desperately need so i think that much is clear and therefore you know from the environmental point of view amongst all the other points of view we we have to do something and and we hope you will support us in in the idea of a pilot land observatory thank you senator brady
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