Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for giving us the opportunity of discussing this important item. For many people, it is not easy to make a living from farming in the Ireland of 2005. The price of beef hovers at a dangerously low level, so much so that many farmers barely break even when selling beef. The latest development in Irish farming is the eradication of the Irish sugar beet industry following the decision of the European Council of Ministers to cut the price of sugar beet by 36%. Such a slashing of income means that farmers who make their livelihood from sugar beet production must now kiss that livelihood goodbye. As with beef imports, Irish farmers are being pushed aside to make way for cheap sugar cane from countries such as Brazil. They cannot hope to compete with countries whose production costs are vastly less than in European countries such as Ireland.

What seems to be forgotten by Ministers in Europe discussing economics is that at the heart of farming lie families and a way of life that is very important to nations such as Ireland. Some 3,700 farming families will be affected by the loss of the beet-producing sector in Ireland. That sector has existed since 1925 when engineers in Carlow began to mark out ground for what was to become the Carlow sugar factory. The development of other factories at Mallow, Thurles and Tuam proved that high quality sugar could be produced economically in Ireland from home grown material. It gave farmers the opportunity to diversify their production and gave them much-needed income.

Now, sugar beet production in Ireland, which has been a part of our history since shortly after the foundation of the State, has been signed away for a compensation package of €145 million. The upset at the destruction of the Irish beet sector was voiced recently in my constituency when hundreds of angry farmers met in Cahir. Many of them, from all over the beet-growing areas, including Wexford, Laois-Offaly, Carlow and Tipperary, implored the Minister to do something about their livelihood.

The Minister of State is in the enviable position of having discretion in the allocation of that European compensation fund and I appeal to him to consider as his first priority the 3,700 farming families which have recently seen their beet-producing days ended by the stroke of a pen in Europe. If any other sector had lost a similar number of jobs in one fell swoop, the Government would have responded with great urgency, not with the non-committal attitude that it reserves for farmers. Some 1,500 non-farmers employed in the sugar beet sector in Ireland will also shortly find themselves jobless. This is the bleak situation that must be considered by the Minister for Agriculture and Food when choices are being made about the allocation of the €145 million EU compensation package. The beet farmers who, at the end of the day, are the ones who will suffer most from this latest disaster must be properly and responsibly looked after by the Government.

I ask the Minister of State to clarify his intentions in respect of the distribution of the €145 million EU compensation package provided to compensate for the loss of the Irish sugar beet sector and to give his views on the viability of farming in Ireland in the future.

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