Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 27 March 2018

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised)

3:30 pm

Photo of Jackie CahillJackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise three different sectors. One is the beef sector. We had a Private Members' Bill a couple of weeks ago on the suckler cow and the need for a payment. However, as has been said a few times, we are approaching 1 April and the beef price now is probably fractionally below where it was in November and December. How are beef finishers going to survive and stay in business with the price return that they are getting? Our whole beef sector, which is a huge contributor to the overall economy, is under serious pressure from the man with the suckler cow to the man finishing the cattle. Some serious money is needed. On top of that, we have the challenge of Brexit and Mercosur is again raising its head. The concessions being made on the Mercosur deal are going to make a bad situation even worse. However, traditionally beef prices always went on a steady graph from Christmas to 1 June. If anything now, the graph is going downwards at the moment. How is this sector going to survive? I appreciate there is some funding being given to Bord Bia in the context of Brexit but all the challenges facing that sector are absolutely immense.

On designated land, and in particular I refer to the hen harrier areas, a launch of a scheme was announced in late 2017. However, the view among farmers with designated land is that this scheme is wholly inadequate to restore the value of their land. At the stroke of a pen, Brussels took away the value of the land of these farmers. If a scheme is to be meaningful in these areas of natural constraint, it has to be able to restore that land to its rightful value. The scheme announced in 2017 is seriously underachieving in that respect and we have representations here from various groups. There definitely needs to be more resources put into that scheme. A properly funded scheme has to be put in place for these farmers who have been severely discriminated against with their land being designated. It does not seem to be in the 2018 Estimates.

The hill ewes have been referred to again as a sector that faces land abandonment in certain areas. However, the Estimates for 2017, in the animal welfare scheme for sheep, has an increase of €3 million for 2018. I would like an explanation of where that extra €3 million is going to be spent. My understanding is that the scheme is not open to new entrants at the moment. I refer to the discrepancy in the figures between one year and another.

Especially with hill ewes, we have to try to get extra funding for them in order to avoid land abandonment. I could go into other sectors. The challenges facing the beef sector, which are immense, designated land and hill ewes are the three sectors on which I would like to focus.

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