"I'm not going to take lectures from Green Party" - Mayo TD

"I am not going to take lectures from the Green Party."

The statement has been made by Mayo Deputy Rose Conway Walsh.

During a debate in Dáil Éireann on nature restoration law, she outlined: "I am from rural Ireland and from a farming community and have been dealing with farming organisations and farmers across the board.

"Since the nitrates directive in 1997, I have heard all of the promises that were made to farmers and all of the ambiguities involved.

"First it was a case of telling them to have as many sheep as possible on the hills.

"Then they were told to take them all back down, to put them back up, and to take them back down again.

"Farmers were told to invest in dairy over the years and they have invested hugely in the sector.

"Now they are being told that the dairy herd will have to be cut, with 200,000 cows to be culled annually.

"We want to get this right and we want to work with the government to get it right but let us have some truth about how farmers and rural communities have been treated.

"In its current form, the nature restoration law has too much ambiguity around the impact it would have on family farms."