Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My apologies for being late to the Chamber. I propose to share time with Deputy John Browne. I welcome the opportunity to speak on CAP negotiations and CAP reform. We have a very serious crisis at the farm gate in respect of the fodder crisis. In my part of the country, we are on the back of a desperate summer. Some people in my area have cattle inside since June last year. I appeal for something to be done for these people. There is major despondency about this point. I acknowledge that commodity prices have increased but costs, including the cost of production, have increased greatly. People I talk to have seen their profits wiped out for 2012 and are looking into 2013 expecting their profits to be wiped out. This is a major crisis. The banks, the merchants and the co-ops should be taking a lenient view of what is considered a reasonably good outlook in the long term for agriculture and commodity prices. We must encourage people.

We are at a crossroads in agriculture in respect of the negotiations in CAP. What will be determined will be the blueprint for agriculture over the coming decade. The argument has constantly been about protecting the productive farmer, making sure that the payments are there for people who are working extremely hard to develop their farms and businesses, and for Ireland Inc to ensure it has an agriculture industry with a huge amount of exports in beef, sheep and milk. There is also a section of society comprised of farmers who want to be productive. Over the years they have benefited from very small payments and strived to develop a business for themselves and their families so that they can live off the land. They want to be productive farmers and it is not true to say that those on small payments are not productive. Such language should not be used within the farming sector. They are productive and a huge number of the people I meet, as I am sure the Minister does, are mad to get into agriculture on a full-time basis. They want to ensure they can derive a living from their land or the land they rent. This sector must be seriously examined because of the amount of exports that can be grown by Ireland Inc if we allow the underdeveloped agriculture sector to develop further.

We should also acknowledge the massive contribution made by farmers over the past 20 years in respect of regulation. We have a world-class food industry and a world-class product we can sell any stage because farmers have taken major regulation nationally and from Europe. They have bought into it at the farm gate. Some of the articles were written recently against agriculture in respect of greening. No sector has been so concerned with the environment or has worked the environment so well over the past 20 years. The farmers have taken a major amount of regulation but have built up a world-class product at the farm gate and it can be stood over by any Minister, Government or Department. According to some of the proposals put before the Commission last week, it looks like over the coming three months to the end of June there will be a major onus on us to ensure that whatever redistribution takes place, the man working his land and who is prepared to work his land is looked after. Similarly, we should encourage the man who has a very small payment through no fault of his own, who bought land or rented land due to family circumstances and is prepared to develop the industry and sees a future for himself and his wife and family in agriculture, whether in milk, beef, sheep or tillage. The statistics of the European Parliament show the small percentage of young farmers. National debates also use this statistic as a barometer. A huge number of people are prepared to do it providing the payments are in order.

Comments made by certain people within the farming industry refer to different proposals. The capping of the Common Agricultural Policy must come into play. It is certainly an issue that must be examined. We cannot have 80% of payments going to 20% of farmers. There must be redistribution and meaningful capping of payments. In past negotiations, capping has been introduced at a level that has no meaningful role. The issue is that a huge number of farmers may not, because of the size of their single farm payment, be classified as productive farmers. They are willing to work the land and derive an income from it but there must be a base payment and a floor to allow them to grow and develop their industry so that we can increase our product in line with the Food Harvest 2020 document produced by Deputy Brendan Smith. We must achieve the commitments within that document and grow the industry as we grow into the emerging markets looking for a quality product such as the Irish product.

The Common Agricultural Policy has a 10% cut in funding. We must ensure Pillar 2 is looked after in respect of the farming side and the rural development side. There is an agenda to try to streamline the rural agenda development side into local authorities and to do away with Leader companies throughout the country. That is a retrograde step because people all over Europe are looking at Ireland's model of the distribution of Leader funding. People are trying to copy it all over Europe while in Ireland we are trying to dismantle it. This is very serious for farming.

It is the template for agriculture going forward and we must look at it very seriously.

As I said, there is a serious fodder crisis. People from my part of the country are travelling hundreds of miles to source feed. It behoves us all to ensure there are meaningful talks with the farming community and that a worthwhile measure is put in place to alleviate the crisis.

See this speech in context