Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I welcome the witnesses from the Department. We have to realise the export of calves is vital, especially for the dairy sector, which needs to calve cows every year so that cows continue in milk. The calves have to go somewhere. Farmers cannot be beholden to factories because we know what happens there from time to time, namely, if there is a large increase in young cattle becoming strong steers or whatever, the price of those cattle will decrease and it will be impossible for some dairy farmers to sell their calves economically. We are an island country, so selling our calves to Europe and various other places is our only option. I appeal to the Department not to make the system overly prohibitive.

I caught the tail end of the witnesses speaking about milk replacer and electrolytes. Electrolytes are fine for a day or two until a sick calf gets clear of the scour or whatever it is, but it would not be right to insist that they be given to calves going on a journey. They need the strength of milk replacer to keep them going. That is my view. Maybe others hold a different view. Farmers produce their calves to a standard where they know they are fit to travel. Otherwise, they will not have purchasers. The people buying the calves for export will not buy weak ones, so there is no fear around that. The dairy farmers are producing calves to a high standard. I have seen them. Even though the farmers’ primary objective is to produce milk, they know they must have good calves before buyers will purchase them for a long journey.

All I am asking of the Department is that it ensure the calf export market is maintained. There are rumours of different groups suggesting we should not export calves at all because it is animal cruelty or whatever. Most operators – 99% of them – do their job to 100% perfection. There is always a bad apple in every group, but for the most part these people are good operators. That objectors are trying to stop the export trade is unfortunate and unfair. They basically want to finish farming in Ireland.

Currently, farmers are experiencing many uncertainties. One of them that we as a committee have to recognise is that young farmers, or the young people who are expected to take over farms, are realising that the friends they went to school and college with work five-day weeks and, when those friends are going home at 4 p.m. on Friday, the young farmers must still work on Saturday and Sunday. They have to milk the cows seven days of the week. Farming is not attractive for young people anymore. It is not about the money they can earn but the kind of life they want to have. They can see other young people and their companions having a much better time, going on holidays or whatever.

Cattle have been inside since September or October. They are still not out in many places. There is good land here up the country, as we call it, but down around Kerry, there are many animals that will not be out for another fortnight or three weeks until the ground hardens. Black ground, as we call it, does not soak up water and water takes longer to disappear. That is one of the problems.

Another problem is uncertainty over the rules and regulations being introduced. We are overproducing in Ireland, but we do not have gold, diamonds or whatever. We might have oil off the Kerry coast, but they will not let us drill for it. We do have green grass, though, and our climate is such that, most of the time, we have better options because of our grass-based system. Unlike other continents where the cattle are inside all year, we treat our animals naturally. Farmers are facing considerable uncertainty over the regulations. I got a call half an hour ago. The farmer’s elderly mother was inside the house when some inspector came and examined the tractor and everything else that was in the yard. The tractor had not even been used for a long time – it was there since times gone by – but now there is a list of things to be done to it, including putting on a rearview mirror. It is a tractor without a cab; it has a rollbar. The farmer is being told to put a rearview mirror on a tractor he uses for scraping the yard. There was a yard scraper on it. A rearview mirror was one of the items on the list, which was thrown in through the letterbox to the farmer’s elderly mother. This man has had a tough time. With all of the inspections and regulations, farmers are frightened. In a very short time, we may be importing food. I said that in the Chamber today. I hope those who are objecting to farmers are the first to go hungry and pay a high price for imported food.

As elected representatives or departmental officials, we should be assisting our farmers in every way we can to ensure they keep going. It is one of the only natural products this country has had for years. When farming went bad, the rest of the parish – shopkeepers, storekeepers and the whole lot – went bad as well. It is in our best interests to ensure agriculture remains on a sound footing in this country. I ask the Department’s officials to ensure that whatever new regulations are demanded by Europe are fair on our farmers. At the end of the day, all of us will suffer, not just the farmers. As with how the coastal communities that depend on fishers and trawlers are affected by the regulations that affect them, what happens to farmers sends out ripples. If we lose a number of farmers every day or year, we will all be affected. We have to have food.

It was very unfair that last summer a Luas going up and down this great city of Dublin was painted white with black writing on it advising people not to drink milk. The Minister for Transport allowed that to happen or maybe caused it to happen. I cannot prove that and will not say that, but it did happen. What kind of people would we be if we did not get milk when we were young, from our mothers first and from then on? We have an eminent orthopaedic surgeon in Tralee, Dr. John Rice, advertising on our Radio Kerry every day that young people must ensure they drink enough milk to build up calcium in their bones and their bodies for the rest of their lives. There is no good in giving it to the likes of us now - our bones will not get any better - but for young people milk is vital. If we do not produce milk, we could affect milk production by hurting the calf export trade. A cow calves every year. If she does not, she will not have milk. A calf comes into the bargain as well. We must export calves or else we will clog the thing up and hurt the beef farmers on top of it.