Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 2 October 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Priorities for Budget 2019: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

3:30 pm

Photo of Eugene MurphyEugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the Chairman and members will know, I am not a member of the committee but I was anxious to attend this debate today. I appreciate the opportunity to make a short contribution.

I thank the Minister for his attendance and entering into this dialogue with us. It is important that we discuss these issues pre-budget. I know that Deputies McConalogue and Cahill have covered most of the issues. Therefore, when I refer to the suckler cow scheme or things like that I do not expect the Minister to go back over things because he has already answered. I wish to put it on record that the suckler cow scheme is very important to my part of the country - to the west, midlands and north west. The scheme is as important to my area as the dairy business is to the south of the country but in reality the scheme cannot continue, which other speakers have said here.

I am alarmed by the fact that farmers with good arable land are saying that the work is not profitable, that they cannot break even in many situations and their only option is forestry. I want to put it on the record that I am not anti-forestry. I believe that we need forestry, it is important for reducing carbon count and the sector creates quite a lot of jobs. As the Minister well knows, the reality is that if a farmer walked into his or her local bank tomorrow morning and said he or she wanted to develop their farm and forestry vis-à-vis a suckler herd then he or she will get better terms from the bank for forestry. It is a pity that good arable land, which farmers have worked as agricultural land for years, will be lost to forestry and that has happened repeatedly in my county and constituency of Galway-Roscommon. Since I became a Deputy I have received a lot of representations on the matter. We need to support the suckler cow business in some shape or form. As members will know, my party has, for a number of years, given a commitment to securing a payment of €200 per suckler cow. People have constantly raised the matter with me but I will leave it there because the Minister has dealt with it.

Obviously the Minister is not going to give us clues about what the budget will include. Recently farmers, the IFA and others have told us in briefings about the benefits of renewable energy. We should get far more serious with the farming industry in terms of renewable energy. Farmers are prepared to produce renewable energy and huge opportunities await them. Surely the Government should go out of its way to assist farmers to become more involved in the production of renewable energy.

Deputy Cahill mentioned the pig sector. Fewer than 300 pig farmers remain in this country and there are only eight or ten of them in my constituency. The industry has been really rough for quite a number of years. I certainly would not like to see a situation develop where there are zero pig farmers in this country. These people work very hard and they need protection and support.

I wish to mention drainage schemes. Prior to my going into media I was a qualified horticulturist and I was involved in soil testing for a number of years. It is very noticeable that the quality of the soil has deteriorated in recent years. Due to rain patterns a lot of the nutrients have been washed out of our soil. Therefore, it is vital for the future of farming, particularly in the many areas of heavy soil, to reintroduce a drainage scheme. There has not been a proper drainage scheme for many years and farmers badly need it for their farms. I ask the Minister to reintroduce the scheme and provide a budget for same because it is vitally important.

Finally, will money be provided to farmers for diversification such as agri-tourism or whatever?

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