Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)

I thank the Labour Party for allowing me ten minutes to speak. I fully support this motion. I go further and say that all of the budget cutbacks in the agriculture sector should be reversed. This would include not just the three schemes referred to, but also the suckler welfare scheme where payments are to be halved and the cuts made in Teagasc and the overall allocation for research and development.

Within days of the budget, I was contacted by a group of 27 young farmers in Kerry who, because of the closure of the installation aid scheme, were concerned they would not be eligible for the scheme. Some 23 of them had completed their training course in July this year. They received their FETAC certificates just days after the budget, despite the fact they had a letter from Teagasc telling them they would have their certificates within six weeks. The anomaly for these young people is that the delay in awarding them their certificates means their prospects are affected by the budget. However, because of the closure of the scheme they are no longer eligible and this represents a severe and in some cases fatal blow to their hopes and prospects of beginning to farm. I am reliably informed that 500 other young farmers in the State are in a similar predicament. The Minister has not clarified the position in respect of these young farmers and this must be done. They are entitled to the installation aid and should receive it.

As I stated at the time, this represents not only a betrayal of those young farmers who entered into training courses to prepare themselves to take over the running of a farm, it also represents a cynical vote of no confidence in rural Ireland. The stark fact is that in the absence of schemes such as installation aid, which often can be the difference between a young farmer being able to get off the ground or otherwise, many of the 23 young farmers to which I referred from my native county, as well as the 500 in other counties, will not only not proceed with their plans, but may well in the current climate also be unable to secure employment elsewhere and undoubtedly a significant proportion of them will be forced to emigrate.

Is that the sort of message the Government wishes to send to young people in rural Ireland? Is that all it has to offer after decades and more of economic growth? Once matters begin to take a turn for the worse, young people in rural communities are expected to do what generations of young people in rural Ireland have done, which is to turn their back on their traditional way of life and seek work on building sites and bars in London, New York and elsewhere. That is, if such work is available. In present circumstances, given the downturn in the economic outlook of the traditional countries to which young people leaving rural Ireland emigrated, this opportunity no longer is open to them.

The same applies to the early retirement scheme. Together with others, I have been meeting people and getting representations from those who felt badly done by the original scheme or rather, how their situation was affected in the wake of the CAP reform and the impact it had on them. Closing this scheme will, in the same manner as getting rid of installation aid, have both a direct impact on farmers' incomes and a negative impact on the transfer of land to younger farmers and on the future of the sector with regard to land ownership, farm innovation and consolidation. I cannot understand how the Government would take such an irresponsible approach, given it is trying to encourage young people to stay on the land and to encourage elderly people to transfer the land to the young in order that they can continue in a traditional way of life. I cannot understand the reason a government would take such a cynical decision and effectively wipe out both sectors.

It is clear from the representations I have received since the budget both from my native county and around the country that there is huge anger and disappointment with the manner in which farming and the rural economy is being treated. This is being reflected at present in the meetings and lobbies being held around the country, including a large turnout in Ennis last Sunday, where up to 10,000 farmers and their families protested. I was proud and honoured to attend last Sunday's meeting.

While the entire sector is affected, the impact the cuts will have on smaller farmers is particularly noticeable, as is the manner in which this is adding to an already considerable level of pessimism among small to medium farmers about the future. Unfortunately this ties in with the feedback I have received while compiling a report for the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on the current state of and future prospects for, farming and fishing in the western counties. While the report focuses on west Cork, Kerry, west Limerick, Clare, Galway, Roscommon, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal, it is of relevance to the entire country and particularly to farmers at the lower end of the income scale. I am pleased to note that while compiling this report, I received great support from all the farming bodies and from the affected people living in rural Ireland.

One of the most striking findings from a survey that was conducted among farmers in those counties during the summer was the level of pessimism. Of the more than 200 farmers who took part in the survey at marts, only 23% thought their situation had improved since the introduction of the single farm payment, a further 60% believed their situation had worsened, while the remainder felt there had been no change. That is an extremely worrying statistic and one that undermines much of the optimism that surrounded the introduction of decoupling as part of the 2003 CAP reform. One of the reasons clearly is that the value of the single farm payment is declining by approximately 12%. This is because it is not index-linked and, in some cases, through modulation, even though farmers on the lowest payments are exempt. Another significant finding from the survey was that 84% believed that farmers in the west were disadvantaged in comparison with those in other parts of the country. While some of this was attributed to the quality of land, others specifically referred to what they believed was an official neglect of the west, not simply in farming, and that the overall treatment of the rural economy was badly affecting farming and increasing the difficulties of attaining viability.

Perhaps the most worrying aspect of the survey, however, was that only a minority of those questioned believed that they or a family member still would be involved in farming in ten years' time. A total of 42% believed they would, 38% believed they would not and the remainder were unsure. This suggests an even greater proportion of current farm households will be gone within the next decade than even the 23% decline by 2015 that was forecast in the Agri-Vision report. It may, however, be a more realistic picture, given the way western farmers view their prospects and in the light of the current undermining of the sector, as represented most recently by the budget cuts. Indeed were this survey to be conducted now, I am sure the negative responses would be far greater than they were in the summer. This is my point. The Government's actions regarding rural Ireland and the farming community in particular have made the position far worse than it was previously and have created far more pessimism in that sector.

This is the reason it is crucial for the Government to take urgent measures to encourage what remains the largest single indigenous provider of livelihoods in this State, which has a major multiplier effect throughout the rest of the rural economy in stimulating activity in other areas such as construction. However, just as investment in farming has a positive impact, so too will the withdrawal of investment and this already is apparent in the building sector in many areas. This is particularly true given the failure to extend the waste management scheme and to permit farmers to complete planned on-farm works that would have sustained many jobs over the short term in this difficult period.

The Government's actions have been contradicted by the commendable actions of Michelle Gildernew in the Six Counties. The Executive there has extended the scheme for three months, where the construction of farm waste management is perceived to be credible and verifiable. It is prepared to pay the remainder out of its own Exchequer, which is highly commendable.

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