Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is quite sickening to listen to people who talk in an ill-informed manner about the agriculture industry. Rarely, if ever, have I commented on any contributions by any other Member of the House in my time here, but I must take a deep intake of breath after the previous speaker's comments.

I am a small farmer. I was a dairy farmer, and I come from a farming heartland. We would like to think that we are small to medium-size farmers within our community. To equate the farmers who have worked particularly hard over the past nine months and tell us we are a wealthy elite simply beggars belief. It is time that we, as a society and as a people, understood exactly what farmers do. We understand what farming is, namely that it involves producing food. We must respect the farmers who have continued to farm in adverse weather conditions over the past nine months. Even in the past week or ten days since the weather cleared up, they have been ready to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to make sure that crops are planted and there is food on our tables.

The discussion and commentary on farming over the last while has been consistently about undermining it and that somehow it is a dirty business, a wealthy business and a business that does not fit into the current discussions around climate or climate change. In reality farmers produce food and many commodities. Post Covid, we see that people can take holidays at home and abroad. Thankfully, our country bounced back and is going reasonably well enough to allow that. However, farming needs to continue in order to facilitate food production. There is an issue if we do not respect those who are producing food at the very top level.

Farmers have had regulation after regulation, especially over the past 30 years since the outbreak of mad cow disease and perhaps before that too. They have absorbed those regulations at the farm gate to produce a traceable product. We must stand by farmers. We have to understand that farmers are working extremely hard and that their basic product is what we, as human beings, eat. The only thing that goes into our digestive systems is food. If we can be sure of the product we are eating, then we can be sure of better health. We must acknowledge that farming here and across the northern hemisphere in general has a massive amount of regulation surrounding it. Farmers are producing food that is top of the range.

It is sickening in the extreme to hear commentators continuously talking down the agriculture industry. They talk it down as if it society would be way better off if we closed it all down. If we closed it all down society would be hungry. We are heading towards having 10 billion people on our planet. If we have to make sure there is food production in the next ten, 15 or 25 years, then we would need to increase food production by 35%. This increase of 35% would be needed to make sure that human beings on this planet are fed. Yet people turn around and belittle farmers and belittle the agriculture industry. A shutdown, even just for the current period, would be short-lived, a cheap skate measure and wrong.

We must ensure that farming can continue. Right across the country, people are leaving farming because they have come to a certain age and have devoted 35, 40 or 45 years of their life to food production. We must ensure that young generation of people go into farming, that there is a livelihood to be made, and there is a standard of living they can get out of farming while not working 24-7, all the while producing food. All the farmers I meet - I know them and can talk about the individuals and family farm units - have worked extremely hard for generations and really pride themselves on what they produce. They pride themselves on the dairy industry, on the solids and the amount of milk they produce and on the efficiencies they have developed in recent years. If we take a reasonable look at it, we will see that there are fewer dairy cows in the country now than there were 40 years ago. There is more milk production because of the efficiencies that have been brought about but there are fewer dairy cows than was the case 40 years ago. It is important to acknowledge the efficiencies at the farm gate.

We must also acknowledge the massive employment for which the co-ops are responsible. I can speak of my own co-op, the Boherbue Co-op, which is a small operation. I pay tribute to Declan O'Keeffe, who is retiring after many years as steward of the Boherbue Co-op. I wish them well into the future because it is important that these small co-ops are kept there. Consider also the North Cork Co-op. It has a product that is sold right across the world. There is also the Kerry Co-op, which is a leader in the context of what it produces. There are many fine people working in research and development across these co-ops. They are producing and looking at the product to see how they can gain efficiencies going into the future.

If there is one thing we have seen over the past number of months, particularly during the winter, it is the impact of regulation. We went into the first and second week of February and the weather was deteriorating after a particularly wet period. We should have a mechanism whereby special responses by the Departments of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Environment, Climate and Communications would be triggered earlier. We had the fodder group meeting, but the Departments should be looking to act earlier. We welcome the decision by the Minister to extend the nitrates deadline until the end of April. However, maybe in the heat of the battle in late March or early April a signal should have been sent. We should be looking at what is happening much earlier. Spring is particularly challenging for all farmers. That has been the case particularly this spring.

If we look at this matter and ask what we can do to ensure that we have a future in agriculture, that more people will be involved in agriculture, that there will be more food production on the island and that food will be produced more efficiently, we can see that the answer is a reduction in regulation. Everybody is talking about the regulation and how they have to comply with regulation after regulation and how they have jumped through hoops. We understand the various ways regulations have developed but if there was a way of streamlining regulations at the farm gate, it would remove a great deal of the pressure. The next CAP is starting. I welcome the comments by the Minister on 4 March last about simplifying the CAP. That is important, but it is also important that we have a meaningful reduction in the amount of regulation. We had the nitrates directive this week and the single farm payment or the basic income support for sustainability payment. There are deadlines all the way. Computer systems have been developed in a massive way. Would it be possible to simplify the regulations in order to allow people to do what they do best? Let them farm and produce food that is sustainable and that is needed across the world.

Comments to the effect that we export most of our food were made. We are feeding the world with our food. We should not be ashamed about that in any way. We should be proud of what we are doing. A total of 12.5% of the infant formula consumed throughout the world is produced in Ireland. Think about it. Imagine the catastrophes that we are averting by having that product on the world market. It is important that we acknowledge this.

Various radio and television programmes discuss farming. Some of them are dedicated to farming practices and to what is happening throughout the country. It is important that they talk to those engaged in vibrant and meaningful farming. Two meetings on renewables were held over the past couple of weeks, one in Cork and the other in Kilkenny. Significant crowds turned up because farmers at the farm gate are looking at ways of being more efficient and taking energy from solar or elsewhere to reduce their costs. I have seen technology being developed by Liscarroll Engineering that involves taking energy from solar panels and storing it on ice. Do not ask me to explain the science behind this. However, using this method would reduce the costs of the average dairy farm by over 25% year on year. Significant technologies are available. Over generations, farmers have embraced technology and new ways of farming. I know there is an issue relating to state aid but if farmers are producing energy off their sheds and putting solar panels on them, and we have TAMs for that, could that be sold back to the grid? Could it be arranged in a way that it becomes part of the farmers' income as well as reducing their costs? There are many ways we can do it.

I am certain that there is one thing we cannot do. We cannot reduce food production. If we do, we will cause challenges across the world. We are feeding the world with our excellent products. We can be proud of what we are exporting, but we cannot reduce the level of production. The only way to do this is by ensuring that there are sufficient numbers of farmers and that farming and farmers are respected. Farmers have to be respected not just in this House or by public representatives but also by rural communities. We see some people cocking their noses at smells. This is a vibrant indigenous community. We have to ensure it is respected there and in commentary. The kind of language used by the previous speaker is not acceptable when you are talking about food production because we are basically feeding human beings. All the other challenges are there. They can be met but we cannot reduce food production because in ten, 15 or 20 years' time, the world will pay a massive price for it.

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