Tim Lombard (Fine Gael)
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I acknowledge the Minister's opening statement and the numerous questions he has answered. This is a very large brief, which has a lot going for it. Fodder was mentioned and I need to touch on some issues regarding that. We had snow, storms and drought in my part of the world, and there has been a significant uptake in the amount of fodder made in the past few weeks, even last weekend. The knock-on effect, however, for me and others involved in the industry is the financial implications of the fodder crisis, whether in June, July and August, when large quantities of meal, round bales and whatever else, was being fed.

The fodder crisis has moved on to become a financial crisis in many ways and we must now manage that through the institutions. I do not think the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has a direct responsibility to manage the funding but the pillar banks need to come on board and be more amenable to that.

I have heard alarming reports, even as recently as this morning and I will share the information with the Minister after the meeting, about pillar banks being slow to deal with the farming community. The merchant credit that built up in June, July and August needs to be moved off the books and maybe moved away via a two or three year loan so that farmers can move through this phase and on to the next phase. I hope that the Minister will engage with the pillar banks to ensure that there is no blockage, and work is done to ensure that the banks engage with the agricultural community thus allowing funding to flow.

During the summer a very interesting TB forum took place and the Minister announced that the new chairman is Mr. Michael Cronin. The incidence of TB has dramatically declined in the past few years. In the past the figure was 8% but it reduced to 3.5% in 2017. The TB forum is something that we need to acknowledge and it is very worthy. I ask the Minister to clarify how the forum will work so that Ireland is TB free by 2030. How does he think the badger vaccination programme or the start of same is working? What about the announcements published in newspapers today on the outlook for TB and herd restrictions? One of the issues that I picked up on the ground today is that people are confused, seek clarity and want to know where we will go with the proposals. I realise that the proposals might be quite restrictive. I ask the Minister to inform us more about these issues.

The Minister spoke, quite rightly, about Brexit as did many members here. I do not have a great knowledge of the fishing industry but I met a group of individuals who work in the fishing industry last night. They are deeply concerned about the impact Brexit will have on their industry, on their access to the UK territorial waters and the knock-on effects in terms of the so-called EU fleet arriving into Irish waters without having access to the UK territorial waters. I ask the Minister to comment on the issue. To me, it is one of the issues that has not been spoken about enough. The people who work in the industry feel very left out of the equation. They believe the conversation is more about cheddar cheese instead of mackerel. I ask him to make a statement on the matter.

Finally, I wish to mention Food Wise 2025, which is an important policy that the Government pushed out several years. What is the Minister's view of that policy in terms of the new Oireachtas Joint Committee on Climate Action? I refer to the all-party Oireachtas committee of 22 members who will consider issues of climate change such as ensuring there is a mitigation policy. Is he concerned about the Food Wise policy in terms of these proposals? I realise that we are going through a process at present and that his report will not be published until 15 January. Does the Minister feel threatened by the proposals? Does he believe they will have a large impact on the beef industry, in particular? Some of the unfortunate evidence heard by the committee of late has given the impression that we would be better off moving out of the beef industry and claiming the payments regarding climate. That is a very significant statement that we have seen come out of that committee in the past few weeks. I ask the Minister to comment on these issues because they create great concerns about the industry.