Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for arranging this meeting. I welcome the Minister. He has not been sitting on his hands but more has to be done. Incentives are being provided but they are not good enough. The Minister said he will bring forward the EU payments again. The payments have been brought forward in the past couple of years. If right was right in accounting, farmers should expect a second payment this calendar year given that we have brought the payments forward so much in the past few years. We are allowing farmers to dig a deeper hole for themselves. All financing will go back again into the banks for finance and refinance. Ultimately, those loans must be paid back. We are only prolonging the agony for many farmers who have faced various crises in the past couple of years, such as price volatility, wet weather and now drought.

Not enough has been done to highlight the problem that exists. The country should be more aware of it.

They could see how important agriculture is to this country. The reason I bring this up is that Senator Paul Daly mentioned earlier that from watching Sky News and Euronews, which I also watch, he saw that as early as last July, the British were talking about a climate summit for British farmers in London and there has been no word about what is happening in Ireland. Two weeks ago the Germans were quick out of the blocks with a major package for their farmers. I know it is a bigger country but agriculture as a percentage of GNP and GDP does not have the same importance there but at the same time, they were prepared to throw out this enormous package to all sectors of the agricultural community. I add one proviso through the Chair to the Minister and it goes back to his predecessor. Tillage farmers were being compensated for the loss of crops in Germany. I remember when I came here first as a Teachta Dála in 2016, I met tillage farmers from the south west who had lost their crops through soil drift and they got no recognition whatsoever. The Government failed to acknowledge the need to give them compensation - they did not get one penny for the loss of crops in that time - whereas we can see the position in other EU countries. While the Minister is always saying we must abide by the EU rules, which is fine, it looks as though other countries have a way of bending those rules and looking after their own. We should be seen to do more on that.

There is emphasis given to the issue of the farm loans. We are going down the road where the Minister will have to find somebody from the Department to facilitate some write-offs in needy cases to ensure the viability of the farm family in rural Ireland. Deputy Penrose raised the possibility of meal vouchers earlier and he is half right. I am open to correction but I remember one of the last loan schemes the Department issued to farmers in need. I think I am correct in saying that the needy farmers were not able to access those loans at the time. The Minister might have come back to the Dáil to state all the money was drawn down but did the right farmers get it? Did those who needed it get the money? It is all fine to say the book was closed and all of the money went out but do those schemes work properly to the benefit of the small farmer and the farmer who is badly hit by the issues currently at stake?

I have been concerned for the past couple of months. While I do not suggest the Minister is sitting on his hands, the major industrial sources were playing down this crisis. I refer to one of the major farm journals from four or five weeks ago. I bought it one week and I thought I had the wrong year's edition. There were only one or two items in it referring to the drought crisis we were suffering in the south and south east of the country. It hardly carried an article on it and only made one or two references. I am open to correction on that but I scoured through the paper to see if I was reading the right one because there was a crisis out there. I took part in farm discussion groups in my own area and I acknowledged that some farmers were getting away fine but it could be seen in the mentality of other farmers that they were under severe pressure trying to cope with the situation. The issue had been played down too much. The Department should be doing more on the ground. The Minister should look at the issue of write-offs where there are cases that need it.

Does the Department see a slow uptake in applications this year for the targeted agricultural modernisation schemes, TAMS, for payments or works? Has the Department noticed a change in the economic drive for farmyard investments? That will give a good insight into the economic impact it is having on rural Ireland because that affects farmers and builders and legal services as well. I do not wish to knock the Minister but I feel this crisis has been played down too much.

We might be here talking about a short-term solution but the Minister himself touched on the point that bringing in fodder will not be the solution and will not cover our food shortage. Does he have other solutions in mind, such as culling livestock? There is no point in saying we have a shortfall without having answers going forward. There is no point in finding out on Christmas Day that we might have to go to the factory with extra cattle because there is no fodder. I want to know what the overall plan is for the future. Grass only grows so much every year and only so much can be saved. The Minister should consider write-offs in individual cases and more importantly, a credit scheme should be provided through the co-operatives and the merchants because they are the people who know the farmers better than any bank manager working a computer above in Ballsbridge. They know where the feed is needed and where the credit is under pressure.