Mr. Joe Healy:

We are trying to attack the input costs. Deputy Cahill is 100% correct on fertiliser prices and the fact there is no justification whatsoever for the price over the past several weeks.

The point is to try to get more competition and get the import duties and the anti-dumping tariffs scrapped. A vast amount of work has gone into it. We travelled to Russia and the Ukraine last year for the International Fertilizer Association conference. We went to bring attention to this and to the need for action to be taken. We have done considerable work at European level with the other farm organisations throughout Europe. We have secured their support for it and we have worked with the various Commissioners as well to get some movement on both duties.

The IFA commissioned the International Food Policy Research Institute to do a report on this two years ago. In February 2016, the institute published the report, which indicated the anti-dumping duties and the import tariffs were costing European farmers to the tune of €1 billion extra on fertiliser bills. In Ireland, the cost was between €30 million and €40 million. If we take the pig and poultry sectors out of the equation, fertiliser is the greatest single cost on Irish farms. It is a key cost and that is why the IFA spent so much time on it last year.

Another area we worked on involved making the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland agriculture cashflow support loan scheme available to farmers at rates considerably below what farmers are paying at the moment. We are lobbying on the matter again this year. The IFA and our French colleagues led a campaign last year for a licence for glyphosate, which is crucial for all farmers but especially those in the tillage sector. These are some of the things we have control over. We do not have a great deal of control over world production, but where we have control over things we try to do whatever we can.

I will hand over to Mr. Conway and Mr. Dunne for comment on some of the other issues relating to crop diversification, crop certification and opportunities to grow winter crops.