Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the quick response from the Chairman and the committee to my written request to invite grain farmers before the committee together with the IFA. I thank the IFA representatives for their presentation. I have visited many farms in west Cork that are in serious difficulty since September. I raised on many occasions in the Dáil through Leaders' Questions and parliamentary questions to the Minister the difficulties that grain farmers have been experiencing but, to date, other than the offer of low interest loans, which means kicking the can down the road, nothing concrete has been offered such as a cereal aid package for the survival of our grain farmers. I have also requested the MEPs from Ireland South to support the case for the compensation of these farmers. It is a sector that is discriminated against for some reason. Many Deputies and Senators have been pushing this issue for the past three months and something is preventing the Minister from making a decision that makes a great deal of sense. Precedents were set in the horticulture sector in 2009, the forestry sector in 2013 with the replanting arrangements and the dairy sector in 2015.

I have witnessed the devastation in west Cork and along the west coast. Will Mr. O'Regan outline the losses coastal grain farmers have suffered this year? The winter grain crop has to be resown because of the weather. Salt and storm damage then hit the crop and wiped out much of it, with it having to be replaced by a spring crop. Will he quantify the cost of the resowing, the overall loss of the winter barley crop, the cost of resetting, and the loss suffered in the autumn? Will grain growers survive this year's bad weather without compensation? Will they be forced out of business? Does the industry have a future?