Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister's position on the fodder crisis, which Deputy Cahill raised, is that there is no crisis. Does he continue to maintain that position? I am interested in his assessment of the current position regarding fodder. I understand approximately nine applications have been made for the fodder transport subsidy. Does the Minister accept the scheme was a folly and the Department's approach was misplaced? On the one hand, the introduction of the scheme was a recognition that we have a problem while, on the other, the scheme was counter-productive in terms of achieving its objective of addressing the problem of supply of grass based fodder. Instead of stretching supply in the country, which was the overall objective of the scheme, the scheme would have increased demand for grass based fodder and resulted in fodder being transferred from one area to another. The scheme has clearly not worked.

Spring is late this year and given the cold weather forecast for Easter, it is possible it will be much later than usual, which places us in a tricky position. As I have repeatedly pointed out, agricultural advisers have been advising farmers to focus on concentrates, whereas the Department's approach has been to focus on grass based fodder. We have reached a pinch point in that there is no grass based fodder available and even areas where it was available are coming under pressure. As Deputies will have noted from reports from around the country, the price of concentrates is increasing owing to demand. Does the Minister accept there is a crisis? Does he also accept that the scheme he introduced had no head or tail?