Mr. Liam Dunne:

I will give some background but will not go into much detail. Some 20 years ago we were getting approximately £140 per tonne for barley, which is the biggest crop in the country. I am meeting Glanbia in the morning and we will try to get it off the €115 per tonne and up, if we could, to close to €130. It will not be easy. Of course there are greater efficiencies now than there were before. We are more mechanised but these things cost money and involve a great deal of investment.

In 2016, almost every tonne of grain produced in the country will be paid for at a price which is below the cost of production. We estimate that a tonne of barley will cost about €135 per tonne to produce, but we will be paid less than that for it. We have to make up that difference, which can only come from our direct payment from Brussels. That means that a farmer would have been better off staying in bed at the beginning of the season because he will get the direct payment in any event if he tops weeds in the ground. It is not in our nature to do that, however.

This is the fourth year in a row that prices have been bad. They were bad up until now but this year they have actually dropped below the cost of production, so we are in a serious situation. The biggest problem is that Europe has a policy of no tariffs on grain being traded internationally. This means that if the Russians want to export grain here, they can do so and there is no problem.

If the Australians or Argentinians want to, there are no tariffs at the port and there are no restrictions on quality. There are trading standards but there are no regulations on other admixtures.

We recently visited boats that came into the ports. The samples we found were very serious and made us very angry because they were below the quality standards at which we grow our barley. On top of that, we found evidence, which I think one will see in the Irish Farmers' Journalthis week from Andy Doyle, of seeds coming into the country that are not native to this country. Weed seeds are coming in that could have a devastating effect on our farming. We are very worried about it. As a result of an open trading system and because we are not making any money, there is a serious danger that the country will have to look for more imports of grain in future, not fewer. We will not be able to produce it. We cannot keep going as we are. It is all very well to say, "There is a farmer with a big tractor and a big combine harvester." Those things cost a lot of money. He has to have a lot of acres to put them over to make them pay and probably has to do work for other neighbours who maybe used to have a machine but do not have one anymore. There is also the weather window, which is always small in this country. One has to get a lot of work done as quickly as possible. We should not be prepared, as a country, to accept that we can import grain when and if we want. We will not have any control over the quality of it and we would not have any control over the price, not that we have much at the moment.

The second biggest issue we have is our interest rates compared with our European counterparts. Tillage farmers in France, Belgium and Germany are looking at 1%, 1.5% or 1.8% interest per year. We are looking at anything from 6.5% up to 8.5%. I am reasonably well financed; I have managed to get there. I do not have any difficulties with my bank but there is no negotiating with them this year. They just said that is the interest rate, take it or leave it. They did not care. I cannot afford that. It is all of our costs right across the board. If a French farmer gets €130 per tonne, he probably has a margin on it of a couple of euro per tonne. We do not have any. That is how big the crisis is with us. We are looking at the possible termination or at least a collapse of the industry within the island. I am asking all members of the committee to take the issue very seriously. We need help and we need it as quickly as possible.

Tillage farmers were specifically excluded from the aid package that came in from Brussels earlier in the year. We are not allowed to participate in it. We are reliant upon the committee members to support us. It is possible for national funds to be used. We are asking for the committee's support in that. We need it very badly.

There is also the issue of fertiliser which is the single biggest cost we have. There are tariffs on fertiliser coming in from outside Europe. There are many manufacturers who would bring down the price of fertiliser if they could. Our campaign has succeeded in bringing fertiliser prices down but only to some extent and on a voluntary basis. The manufacturers know that politically they are under severe pressure in Europe because of our campaign. It has been quite successful in that regard. As soon as we stop the pressure we know the fertiliser prices will go back up. The only hope we have is that our Minister, along with the Council of Ministers and the Commissioners, will take away the tariffs on imported fertiliser. Nitrogen fertiliser is a manufactured product that is manufactured from natural gas. Phosphates and potash are different; they are mined out of the ground. There is no money left in the system at the moment for reinvestment. It is quite the opposite. There is certain evidence coming to light at the moment that a number of the larger growers that have big machines are bringing them back to the UK to try to sell them second-hand on the market there.

The situation is in serious decline. The weather is making it worse. We spent yesterday and today trying to get some extra combine harvesters to Donegal. That is not easy to do. One cannot wheel a combine out on to the road and head off to Donegal. The ground conditions are poor in Donegal too, so we cannot bring any large machinery there. Fields there would not tend to be as big as they might be further south and in the east. The situation is difficult for those farmers but there is still grain, up to 30% of the harvest, to be cut in many parts of the country. South Wexford and some parts of Cork are in a bad way. Galway and Roscommon are also in poor condition. There is grain in north Meath still to be harvested. It was a late spring and many crops were not sown until late. We are concerned about the ground conditions at the moment.

We also cannot afford extra costs such as the price of diesel going up. The reductions over the year were welcome but costs are increasing again. There is nothing left in our pockets. Any resilience that farmers had over recent years is gone. There are no reserves left.

The targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, TAMS, grant for mechanisation would be a help. Some people would probably manage to put something together if they could. There will not be any capital for farmers in the next couple of years to purchase anything without aid. The TAMS grant for tillage farmers has not come to fruition yet. We were hoping it would be open in June but it has not happened yet. We are now told it may open in October but it still may not happen. We have been working with the officials as close as we can but it needs a push and a shove from the committee to get it over the line. We ask for the committee members’ help and support in every way they can. Making the right noises in here can be of considerable help to us.