YES Minister !

Our local TD and minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue was interviewed on rte radio after his appointment, he referred to the role of farmers as custodians of the environment.

Listening to the radio, you would be forgiven for thinking that this was a Green Party member flying the flag for the environment.

No this was a FF Minister in government with the Greens and having to balance his words carefully when he speaks to the media, he knows only too well how important it is to say the right thing in public while doing nothing for the environment in private.

Farmers know that this is “political speak” coming from the minister and they can rely on him not to interfere with their practices on the farm.

“What happens inside the farm gate, stays inside the farm gate.”
And speaking of Glyphosate, a farmer said on radio recently that he was saving €35 an acre every time that he put a crop in the ground because he moved away from chemicals and moved to other methods.

The minister and his Department are actively supporting farmers rid the countryside of “shrub” land with the use of chemicals and heavy machinery and replacing it with sheep farming.
They call this “un-wilding” of the land while other departments are supporting “re-wilding” of other lands.

This schizophrenic approach to managing our environment by the Government is something that we will investigate more here in future issues, but for now you can see an example for yourselves as you take a walk to Fr. Hegarty’s Rock.
On your right, past Fr. Hegarty’s Rock you will see a new fence and gate on to the walk.

During 2020 that land was transformed and now has sheep grazing there, a whole eco-system was destroyed.
That is a “Special Area of Conservation” (SAC) and should not have been interfered with.

No planning permission was granted to change the use of that land and an investigation is ongoing by the National Parks and Wildlife Service(NPWS).
The minister and his Department give supports to farmers to carry out these changes to lands and another Department is sent to investigate the “wrong-doing” that the first Department was involved in supporting.

I assure you, I was not exaggerating when I said above that the government approach to managing the environment was schizophrenic.
Also no arm of government will act on behalf of the environment unless a member of the public makes a complaint.
This is why we must learn more about how to make a SUCCESSFUL complaint.

Recently a complaint was made to Donegal County Council (DCC) in relation to “unauthorised planning” on Military Road.
The complaint has been fast tracked by DCC and a site visit has taken place and a Ref No: has been forwarded to the complainant.
So far so good.

The complaint was successful so far because of the relentless nagging to DCC and by ignoring the Councillors as they would have wasted time with sayings like “you can’t do that sort of thing around here” therefore nothing gets done around here and some other town gets to progress.

Carndonagh has already got their Digital Hub, long promised to Buncrana, but still no sight of it.
Well Done to Carn, you deserve it because you organised yourselves and achieved it, we wish you well, hopefully we can learn from your tenacity and hard work.
2021 challenges us all to support the health of our community, environment and economy.

If we have learned anything in the past year, it is that without a healthy community, we will not have a healthy economy or a healthy society.
Be part of that push for a better town and a happier people.
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