Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I very much welcome this debate. We should have had it, though, some time ago. I will not lay all the blame for that at the Minister's doorstep considering how early Easter was, St. Patrick's Day and the appointment of a new Taoiseach, etc. There was a lot of time taken up in not being in here and with other business.

As the Minister is probably well aware, I live in the midst of a progressive farming community in north Tipperary. I grew up on a dairy farm. Talking to all my neighbours and my dad, this is the worst period of weather we have had in my lifetime. It is affecting us in so many different ways in rural Ireland, not only from an agricultural point of view but from an infrastructure point of view as well. The soil conditions are atrocious and that is having an impact, obviously on planting and sowing and the delays but also on milk yields and all the consequences of that. The financial, social and family strains that are being put on farmers are seismic.

I acknowledge some of the work that both the Minister and the Minister of State have done. I would have done some more in other areas, but I acknowledge it. I also acknowledge the limitations around some of the stuff they can do. There is no magic wand for much of this stuff.

However, the most important point I will make in this debate is that we will be facing this year in, year out. We will probably face it every year in some capacity. Climate change is what it is. Some years the problem could be in a different form due to drought but we need to put in place the mechanisms to be able to deal with this in a reactive way depending on the climatic situation. Some years, we hope, it will be fine and we can run through as normal with all the incentives and all the changes we need to make in agriculture, which we all know about, but we need to have the triggers in place depending on the weather patterns. If the Minister and the Minister of State were to formulate a plan for how that would happen so it would kick in one way or the other, that would be excellent.

I very much welcome the decision to delay farm inspections but, to be honest, many of my neighbours wanted to get them done and out of the way when they were called. While it was welcome in some scenarios, I know few who availed of it.

We have had various suggestions coming from different quarters about short-term assistance that could have helped over recent months. As I was sitting here listening to the debate, I was looking up Carlow Weather. The weather patterns for the next week are improving, which is very important. That is what we are down to. We are actually down to that. The use of high ground and SACs, for example, to provide more fodder and more available land is something we will have to consider into the future when we are faced with these issues.

I was surprised there was not a fodder scheme put in place, but I was also very surprised by what the Minister has said about the number of farmers who availed of what was put forward by Teagasc in relation to help. It does not tally with what I was hearing on the ground, but I respect and understand the figures. They obviously have to be accurate.

I will make a couple of points on the transport scheme which I hope the Minister and Minister of State will take on board. I am referring to many of the farmers I know. On the fodder they have got, I am aware it is over 75 km and I understand that is an arbitrary amount and the Minister has to pick something. However, I ask him to reconsider one thing. I do not think this is actually going to be used as much as first thought. The Minister will probably agree on that. If there is capacity and it is not being used, I ask the Minister and Minister of State to consider it be pulled back from that 1 April date, where farmers have receipts, so that it can be used. We could put it back to 1 March. That is one suggestion I hope the Minister takes on board. Then there is the timely payment of funds. I have had a number of farmers contact me about ACRES difficulties. I have also had young farmers contact me. I agree with the previous speaker on the rules they are being put through to get some of the grants. Some of the rules are pretty minute. There is some delay with some specific aspects of ACRES. There should be more leniency to help farmers through this difficult period.

I will speak a little about the input suppliers, banks, credit unions and processors. I very much welcome some of the approaches being taken by the pillar banks. Some of the processors have put forward very good incentives and schemes to help the farmers. Fair play to Tirlán, which is paying a 3 cent per litre top-up on milk, along with other support payments. Other co-ops are doing other things. It shows some solidarity. In my introduction I talked about us having almost a plan which encourages rather than forces these sort of interventions, and not just from the co-ops, the processors and the banks, so we can kick that in the very minute we know we are facing into a problem based on the way the weather patterns are going. That would be great.

I have to acknowledge the support of all the farming communities and the wider communities in rural areas who are helping many of the farmers. I see that every day and am very much involved in that. It must be acknowledged. It is a real community spirit.

There is the issue of diversification. The Minister has emphasised numerous times how we need more people working in horticulture and tillage, but they have incurred big losses in the last harvest, with everything that is going on in the grain market after Russia’s invasion, etc. We therefore need a long-term plan for when there are difficulties one season after another so we are not losing people. The numbers are dropping and the Minister has acknowledged this. It could be almost like a five-year plan to ensure we are not losing people because of the uncertainty. This is hard, difficult work and many young people simply will not face into it. I live with farmers all around me. Some are in tillage and trying to get the next generation into it. We talk about the family farm and succession, but when it comes to tillage and horticulture that is becoming even more difficult. That is a real issue.

The retailers, which we call “the big five”, must be pushed more to help to ensure growers remain financially viable. We need to see them having supplementary payment schemes in place to ensure consistency of produce available to them so it will be on the shelf, and to ensure the farmer gets as much as possible but also that it is available to the consumer at a fair price. I appreciate the €100 per ha scheme the Minister has brought in, but where has that figure come from? Will he provide by return an analysis of where that figure came from? Surely it was not off the top of the Minister’s head.

Before I finish I must address the Mercosur deal. My colleague, Professor Niamh Hourigan, who is standing in the European elections, has raised how bad a deal this is at a European level. It is bad for our climate and essentially a complete contradiction of what we are trying to achieve globally. The EU is asking Irish farmers to set aside land for nature restoration on the one hand, but incentivising farmers in South America to destroy habitat on the other by importing 99,000 tonnes of beef from there. President Macron has said this is a bad deal and my colleague has said it does not stack up from a financial, security, production quality and climate point of view. There are obviously big decisions to be made about the CAP in the coming year, but also a big decision to be made about this. Simply put, that really needs to be looked at again and rehashed because it is a bad deal all round.

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