William Aird (Laois, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am; I am telling them. I am not questioning anybody. We know where they are coming from. These lads do not need to be questioned; these lads want to hear we are supporting them. That is what they want, and I am supporting them 110%. The bottom line is that I want to make sure the money promised by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil is now given as extra money. I do not want to see TAMS or other supports within the farming sector taking money from the tillage sector. This was a fund that was committed. Why was it committed? We have heard from Mr. McEvoy today that the tillage sector is going down. Is the fate of the tillage sector going to be the very same as that of the beet sector if we do not support it now?

More important, we had to step in. I was a county councillor for over 40 years, and I submitted motions to Laois County Council. If the Government had stepped in and given a proper subsidy for suckler cows, we would not have 200,000 cows out of the market today, nor would the beef industry be in the situation it is in today. We need common sense to prevail, and that is why I urge that we do not lose the grain industry. I have seen the finest of grain people. I am a farmer but I put my hand up that I could not plough an acre of land. The greatest of grain people are all now in dairy because those coming behind them could not get a week’s wages from grain.

Let us be fair about it. The whole tillage industry became imbalanced when we took beet out of it.

The whole agricultural sphere of this country will be totally unbalanced if we take the grain out of it. Let us stop and see what happened from the point of view of history. That is what I am pleading for here today. Funding of €60 million over five years has to be in addition to current funding and incorporated into the agricultural budget. We cannot afford to take it out of the budget that is there at the moment. That is why I ask the committee to speak to the Minister, Deputy Chambers, and ask him to include this.