Tim Lombard (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The industry is at a crossroads, as the Vice Chairman said. The biggest issue at the moment is the lack of confidence. There have been five years of depressed prices. Large numbers of acres have been taken out of the industry to be used for other purposes. The drive has been towards the dairy market. Even this year has seen changes in my part of the world regarding tillage farmers moving to big dairy units. I have a great worry for the industry. We need to have a tillage industry if we are going to have a successful dairy industry because we need straw and the land for nitrates so both need to work together. At the moment, we are at a crossroads and there is a major confidence issue in the industry. The big issue is how to build that confidence. Traditionally, the single farm payment that most grain farmers receive was quite high per hectare. With the renegotiation of CAP happening in the next few years and as a result of Brexit and everything else that is going on, it is not guaranteed. If the CAP deal goes wrong, it could be the death knell of the entire industry. It is a huge issue. If the CAP deal reduces by the amounts the British are paying into the single farm payment scheme at the moment, it will have a huge knock-on effect on the grain industry more so than any other industry. I have a great fear about how it would survive taking into consideration the past four or five years of very bad prices. It is one of the key issues.

We are having a welcome debate trying to make sure the industry survives. The beet industry has been lost over the past few years, there have been bad prices and Brexit is coming. The confidence factor is the biggest issue. There are grain farmers in my part of the world and it is bad enough that they are doing badly, but the other industries are doing well. It has a knock-on effect. They do not wish ill on the other industries but the confidence has been drained from theirs. The bad weather last year in my part of the world had an awful effect on them. This year was not much better. Yields might have been somewhat okay but moisture killed them when they were harvesting in the past few weeks.

I question the view about where GM will come into the workplace. Protein and protein-products, in particular soybean, is a big core industry and how we get that product into farm feeds is an issue. If we were to have a ban on GM coming in, how would the import of soybean affect the core price of meal going into the beef and agricultural sector? Would it have a major knock-on effect if the industry did not have the capability to draw that money back down through higher prices? Are there higher premiums at the moment for proposed GM milk, butter, yoghurt or baby food? I am not quite sure on that point. It is something we need to tease out. Perhaps it is something we need to ask the dairy industry about. How would it cope if soybean was used on a GM-free basis? As the Vice Chairman said, we are at a crossroads with the industry and how we move now will be very important.