Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I compliment the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, on his U-turn regarding the sale of Coillte, if I may use this term very carefully. I welcome that. It was very manly and fair of Deputy Rabbitte in reflecting on the road he and his Department were going down. The sale of Coillte, in the way it was being suggested, would have had huge and disastrous consequences for this country. I raise again the ongoing, serious crisis farmers are facing regarding fodder. The situation is far more acute than it was two weeks ago. Yesterday I received a number of phone calls from people in my area. I am not being parochial because it is widespread. One widow was nearly crying on the phone because she said she had limited credit with her banks, she could not get money to buy fodder and she felt the hay that is being brought in, primarily from England, was being distributed unfairly.

I have also come across another complaint where some farmers who are not affected are actually hoarding bales. There must be a greater oversight by either the IFA or Teagasc of how the fodder coming in is being distributed to ensure those who are most affected get it first, irrespective of which organisation they are affiliated to, be it the Irish Farmers Association, IFA, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, ICMSA, or whatever co-op.

I accept the fodder crisis has been caused by the weather with an unkind spring, desperate winter and a bad year before. To articulate my deep concern about this fodder crisis, however, I propose an amendment to the Order of Business, that a debate be held in the House on the fodder crisis. I know the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine is away but surely some other Minister who knows the plight of rural areas can attend the debate. I welcome this morning’s announcement by the IFA president, Mr. John Bryan, that his organisation will match €500,000 to the €500,000 promised by the agrifood sector. The €1 million provided by the Department is very little in this desperate situation. There will be no grass on the lands for another four weeks. This will have knock-on devastating consequences for agriculture and the agrifood industry over the next few months.