Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for the opportunity to contribute to the meeting. I welcome Mr. Healy and the various IFA tillage sector representatives. They have my support. I am coming at this from a different angle because I want to know where we go next. I have been fighting on this issue for almost ten months. Farmers in Whitegate and Churchtown South in my constituency have taken a double hit with crop damage. As Mr. O'Regan said, a sea mist created a salt drift and destroyed the crop. These farmers replanted most of these fields again with a spring crop and were prepared to take a hit with reduced yields, but there was more bad weather and, therefore, they took a double hit. Everyone has referred to solutions. I have a case full of correspondence with the previous Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. I tried to fight the case on behalf of these farmers on the basis that it was as serious a welfare issue as those who were flooded. I could have two farmers in south County Cork. One is a beef farmer with a shed in place and the neighbour has his winter grain sown.

On welfare grounds, the farmer with the cattle shed gets a few bob to refurbish the premises but what about the welfare of the farmer who lost his crop?

I have done some research and came across the provisions for vegetable growers put in place by the then Minister, Deputy Brendan Smith, in the Government before last. I put a parliamentary question to the Minister on this issue, Parliamentary Question No. 510 of 11 October 2016, and I had to go back to the Ceann Comhairle for a proper answer. The Minister had said there was leeway and that gives me hope, but I am concerned he is trying to subsume tillage problems into one big issue. I spoke about this at a stakeholders' meeting on 5 October. I am frightened for the man who has no money for 2017, having suffered a substantial loss of income. I an worried that his problems are falling on deaf ears and I had hoped the Minister would be stronger on this issue. There are big farmers in the tillage sector but many are family farmers. The previous Minister said, four or five years ago, that if they cannot handle the tillage sector they should get into milk. I thought that was a very bad thing to say. Farmers have stuck with it, though, and Deputy Charlie McConalogue raised a Topical Issue matter on 5 October in the Dáil, on the same day as he was meeting stakeholders. The Minister replied, "Until we have a full picture, I will not jump into making any hasty announcements regarding the measures we might consider appropriate". I hope he is still so minded. Teagasc figures are still not fully in and I am hoping that we have not shut the door on this issue.

The price of grain is a disaster but other areas of the farm sector have benefited from it. These farms are genuine operators. I spoke to some in east Cork, in the areas of Whitegate, Churchtown South and Ballycotton, who have taken advantage of the good weather and planted winter grain again this year. I hope the Minister does not think farmers who sowed winter grain last year, and got caught out, should have learned their lesson. Winter grain has been sowed here for many years and Teagasc will confirm that.

The Minister announced the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland to lend money at low interest rates, which is good if a person can repay his loans. Any farmer would try to take advantage of this facility but there is only so much to go around. When applications are made to banks the priority will be those in the dairy sector, whose milk has gone up in price, and in beef where the product is guaranteed, though the price fluctuates. Tillage is being seriously neglected. I am asking for advice as I have a caseful of documentation but I have been stonewalled in every attempt to find a solution so far. I hope that the power of this committee and the IFA will force the Minister to listen.