Farmers have warned that a ban on forestry in hen harrier-protected areas in nine counties has devalued their land by €980m and is turning parts of rural Ireland into a wilderness.

When the Irish people voted to join what was then called the European Economic Community we did so on the basis of how it would improve our lives — in other words what we would get out of the relationship.

Calls are being made for pressure to be increased on Iceland and the Faroe Islands over their fishing of mackerel in the North Atlantic.