Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and his officials for attending in order to facilitate the discussion of a matter of grave concern to many across the country. I acknowledge the very positive actions taken by the Minister in terms of establishing the fodder group in December, moving the date for the nitrates derogation, as referenced by Senator Lombard, and extending the grazing time for livestock until 1 May. I also welcome that he has received a positive response from the Commissioner in respect of the flexibility sought in regard to the three-crop rule, which is a very positive step.

I wish to focus on a couple of matters, one of which relates to engagement with the banks. I welcome that the Minister will undertake that this evening. There is a very strong feeling that a very significant amount of farm cashflow has been impacted upon. It will be fantastic if the Minister is successful in terms of the low-cost loans. Farmers are terrific clients of banks due to the fact that they have collateral and pay back their loans and, therefore, are good customers. I hope the Minister will have a successful engagement with the banks because I have received a very strong message from farmers in my area regarding this matter.

To a large extent, farmers are very creative when it comes to solving their own problems. The last thing they want is to have hungry animals because they focus very strongly on and are very committed to animal welfare. I acknowledge that the scheme introduced by the dairy co-ops is very welcome. However, one farmer contacted me to say that a group had got together to purchase a silage pit and would have appreciated help with the cost of transport.

I wonder whether there a possibility that such a group could avail of transport supports similar to the supports available for those purchasing through the co-operatives, dairy or otherwise.

I very much welcomed the fact the Minister was talking about learning the lessons of and learning to live with climate change. It is five years since the previous fodder crisis in 2013 and it strikes me that while society and businesses are being badly affect, the impact on farm families is very severe. The sector has been hard hit by this. Given that we have these extreme weather events and winter no longer is three months but seems to be extending to six, seven or eight months, who knows if we will have this constant torrential rain and the kind of climate projections that we hear about? A report by Dr. Stephen Flood in 2013 predicted then that it would not be the last time we would have a fodder crisis. How will we marry that with ensuring that the sector is successful and thriving because there is surely potential as well as challenges in terms of rainfall in climate change for the agriculture sector? I wonder how the climate projections are being factored into plans for the sector in the future because here we are five years later with a fodder crisis that was predicted back then, albeit not specifically as to the year.