Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and his officials. A lot has been covered. We are all on the ground and know the situation we are in and how it has evolved. People tuning in to today's meeting are not doing so to hear what I have to say on the thing. They are all very well aware of it. They will have been cocking their ears for what the Minister might have had to say. Unfortunately, there is nothing new in what I have heard. While I welcome a lot of what was done, I do not think it is anywhere near enough. The Minister's statement did not highlight the depth of the crisis that exists out there. He needs to be talking to individuals on a one-to-one basis about their own circumstances. We are only at the tip of the iceberg.

When we had Teagasc before the committee at the end of last winter's fodder crisis, it was recommending to farmers to build up a two-month feed buffer for the coming year. Then we walked into a drought which I know Teagasc did not orchestrate and could not have predicted. Now the figures indicate that we are 28% down on the normal year, irrespective of getting our two-month buffer for the winter that could lie ahead and to replace stocks that were used up last year to get over the winter crisis then.

All we are hearing about is importation. Sky News would not be very agriculture-friendly but last night, for the first time in a long time, it featured the drought crisis in agriculture in the UK. There is no point in going to the UK. Wherever else we are targeting to import this fodder, the UK farmers are going to be there also along with farmers and agricultural co-ops from the different countries that have been mentioned in which there is also a fodder crisis because of drought. There is going to be a queue in Russia if the food is available there. We need specifics as to what quantities are available for import and what quantities we have pinpointed and targeted and on which we have first call, and at what price. If there is more than one person interested in buying any commodity, the price is going to increase. There is going to be a queue of countries going to wherever this limited forage is. Importation is nice on the ears and can be relieving to hear about but it is not the solution. It ticks the box and lets people think it will be a solution down the line but, realistically, it is not the solution.

I welcome the schemes the Minister has introduced already. In respect of low-input permanent pasture, what the Minister is going to take off that will satisfy hunger. However, the biggest issue we have, as I know from being on the ground, is the quality of what is gathered up. There are fellows making second-cut silage at the moment that should have been made a month ago. As Deputy Cahill has already said, we were down to 3° Celsius last night. The quality is going to be gone out of that grass very soon. It will get cattle over the line and keep them alive but without supplement, without a meal voucher or some system of supplementing that forage, cattle are only going to be kept alive. It is obvious on the ground. I am from a suckler farmer area.

In some areas, farmers are ashamed of the calves they will bring in to wean off cows shortly. A cow that is living on clay and hay in the month of July will not produce a good weanling. In many cases, that is obvious. Farmers have run out of money to buy supplement. Farmers who would creep feed in normal years are not doing so this year because they have had their money tied up from the back end of last year to purchase additional fertiliser. With the best will in the world, a person running any business at a loss will not be able to pay back a loan no matter the interest rate on it. Suckler farmers, in particular, are facing an enormous loss this year. In many cases, the cows went out in poor quality because they were getting feed that was only keeping them alive at the back end of last year, they were only maybe coming around a small bit with a flush of grass when the grass disappeared again and now they are coming in with poor quality calves. There are the domestic economic issues in Turkey which will have a serious effect on the live exports and now the traditional fatteners, who might have bought weanlings off suckler farmers, are looking at their figures, and the price of fodder and forage, and they have some such available, and are beginning to decide that they might have a better year if they buy no cattle and sell the feed to the dairymen.

The Minister quoted the figures. It is said, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics". Dairy production is up, but at what cost? Deputy Cahill is a dairy farmer and he will tell the Minister his milk is up over the past couple of weeks, but what meal is he feeding? What is it costing him? If one burns the candle at both ends, it burns out eventually as it meets in the middle. This perfect storm is only escalating. We are at the tip of the iceberg.

I was hoping the Minister would come in with something new today, but he did not. Anything that is there we have heard already and if the Minister is talking to men on the ground, they will tell him anything that is there will not do it. Men and women, and families, out there are in desperation. At this stage, for many of them it is about keeping their animals alive until next spring and paying debts, and hoping that they have a better year next year. The 70% payment coming in October will be gone before it comes. It is still owed since last spring, never mind the summer. The contractor is owed. The co-operative is owed. Using the suckler herd as the example, the income from the sales at the end of the year will be down also which adds to the perfect storm.

We need a lot more action. Much of what is going on is unprecedented but this is just the start. We cannot merely talk about promising imports as the solution when the dogs in the street know what we are talking about importing is not out there, and if it were, there would be a queue to buy it. Can we afford it?