Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and the officials here this evening. I will not rehash any of the points that have been made already.

From what I have heard here this evening and looking at the Minister's response, I think there is a feeling out there, maybe even among the farming community, that Ms Jean Byrne or Ms Joanna Donnelly will announce the end of and solution to this problem at 9 p.m. some night but that could not be farther from the truth. If and when they give us the good news that there is a ridge of high pressure or whatever, a bit of a change in the weather and a bit of growth coming, this - I do not like making what is a bad news story sound even worse and do not want to sound totally pessimistic - is only the tip of the iceberg. Farmers have spent so much money to get through the crisis that, as has been said already, their cashflow is all gone, their credit with their merchants is at its limit from buying meal and they will not be able to afford to buy fertiliser, which will be needed more than ever before this year. Because of the weather we have had over the past seven months, soil conditions are crying out for chemical support and nutrients. To build back up the stock that has been used, we will need exceptional silage crops this year, and if a farmer is not in a position to spread a fertiliser we are at the start of a fodder crisis in 2019 already.

Coupled with that, there are animal welfare issues, both for dairy and suckler cows. Because they are now getting very little or perhaps even no food, which certainly will be of poor quality, there will be a serious fertility issue. That will only show itself in the calf numbers, in particular in the suckler herds, next year when the farmer will be expected to start paying back his low-cost loan, if he or she happens to get it.

While we might have been slow out of the blocks with the so-called "fodder crisis", we are forewarned as to the major issues that will face farmers as a result of where we are in the coming year and beyond and that needs to be addressed. Another committee must be put together immediately and an action plan of support put together for the farmers for the problems that will result from the winter and the late spring just gone by. While a change in the weather might be seen as the end, in my opinion in many cases it will only be the beginning and we need not to be caught off the mark again.