Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I understand there are complexities, in that large payments have been made to some inactive farmers. I understand that disability may render a farmer inactive, but I am talking about factory farms, not farms being run as viable agricultural units. We must be careful and understanding of land mass and land uses in general. Although I hate to say it, there is a concern in my county, which has a proud record of equine industry, about the amount of land any one conglomerate can own. Many young farmers have contacted me recently about the constant purchasing of land by certain conglomerates. There should be some boundaries there, because one size does not fit all. It is difficult for young small farmers. It is great to see people turning back to agriculture in such large numbers. During the Celtic tiger days it was not sexy to be in farming, if Members will pardon the expression. A five-day-a-week or four-and-a-half-day-a-week job with handy hours and better money was more attractive.

Thankfully, the farm has sustained our economy since the inception of the State. In the last two recessions that I remember that farming played a profound role in our recovery and it is ready, willing and able to do so again now, provided the bureaucrats allow it to do so. While I am all for health and safety and regulations, we cannot just stifle ourselves with regulations. I started a discussion this morning about the number of gardaí in the country and their situation. In my town, Clonmel, the ratio is 600 people to one garda. The last time I checked the figures there were only 40 farmers to one agricultural official. That is overkill. The Minister is talking about bringing in further legislation on dog control, which is very necessary. There are too many officials in the agriculture sector and not enough in other areas, such as the Garda Síochána. I am not saying it is the Minister's problem. I suppose he inherited it. We have to get the balance right. Farmers are bedevilled with too many officials and too much health and safety. There was a farcical situation in County Cork recently when lads filled a pothole. Well done to them. It would have been a shame on them if they had not filled it because somebody else would have been injured. Many of these people who arrive with briefcases and so on are very good but many are too zealous. They are over the top. People question me about the EU and its rules but the biggest problem is the number of statutory instruments and additions that we make to them when they come into our system. We should look at what happens in France and elsewhere.

The relationship between farmers and banks is at a low ebb because the banks lied to the last Government on the night of the bank guarantee and they are lying to this Government. They are not playing ball with farmers as business people. I regularly meet farmers who cannot buy fodder. Their overdraft facilities are cancelled. The banks tell us they are lending because they call people in about their overdrafts and send them out with a term loan under their arms. They are forcing them to take out term loans because farmers have to feed their animals. This matter was raised this morning. It is especially true in this prolonged winter. We had a terrible summer and a reasonable enough winter, and the weather dried up in early March, but now the weather is very bad, fertiliser has been put out and the crops that have been sown are struggling. We have a fodder crisis. Banks need to put their shoulder to the wheel, because the farmers were always good to the banks. They always paid their debts. Even in the last recession in the 1980s they were the only people who had huge borrowings but they paid them off.

I am sorry Deputy Twomey has left the Chamber. There is a great group of farmers in County Wexford who are standing up to the blackguarding of the bankers and the liquidators who are sending people out with pieces of paper, claiming they are court orders when they are not. They bring security companies with them - heavy-handed people. Thankfully, on a few occasions they have been removed because the paperwork was not right. The laws of the land are being flouted. Agriculture and land are very emotive issues in Ireland. There have been land wars. We need only think of The Field. The banks' code of practice is not worth the paper it is written on because they are not adhering to it. They have over-zealous liquidation companies who claim to have court orders and all the law on their side. I sat in a bank with a group of people who were in trouble and the managing director told me his lease and hire purchase agreements were more powerful than any court order. These bankers need to be taught a lesson. They need to be exposed and outed, because that is the way they think and feel. They are worse than the agents they send out, the marauding thugs who have in some cases beaten up farmers and their families and small business people and their families. They are worse.

CAP is very important and so is reform.

However, we must get our own house in order, and call off these bloodhounds and get them to work with the farmers and support farmers who always supported them. Farmers always paid their way and want to pay their way. Harvest 2020 is hugely important, but the spirit of farmers and agricultural communities is being broken. Agricultural contractors have been affected also.

I am a proud member of the FCI, Farm Contractors of Ireland Association, a new organisation which is one year old and was launched by the late Deputy and Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Shane McEntee. We have sent proposals to both the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Minister for Finance highlighting the importance of the agricultural contractor sector to Harvest 2020. We are all in this together and the sooner this is recognised the better. Professional agricultural contractors receive no fuel rebate, while other sectors such as hauliers do. The FCI wants a simple contractor invoicing system for all farmers to cut out much of the black economy and allow farmers to reinvest. The banks must assist contractors in renewing their machinery which must be replaced every three to five years. However, they have reneged in providing credit for this sector. The bankers have sold their lending books for as little as 20% in some cases, yet they demand 80% to 100% payments from contractors. Sweet cosy deals have been done with bankers to sell off their loan books and send the heavies to the contractors who owe on their loans. This despicable practice must stop. We had enough of it in the days of the Peep o' Day Boys and the Black and Tans. Some High Court judges are sitting up and taking note of these practices and ensuring banks know the limits of their rights and powers when repossessing machinery and so forth. Their practices, of course, will spread to home owners soon. The best growing industry in the country is liquidators and their agents, a third force, a militia, who are going beyond their powers to beat up, intimidate and threaten debtors. Some of them are not even Irish but of other nationalities who have been trained by armies. These are the heavies sent to deal with our people. We must stop this practice and support our people, whether they are in houses, business or farming and stand up to these bullyboy tactics and the banks.

I was always a proud activist in the sugar beet industry and we used to have a sugar factory in Thurles. I am looking forward to a meaningful examination of restoring the industry after 2017 when the sugar quota is abolished. Not being personal, I heard the Minister’s brother one morning on a RTE programme talking about reviving the industry. However, I am not happy with the behaviour of Greencore in this saga of the closing down of the sugar industry. I am less happy with the behaviour of the former Fianna Fáil Government that presided over its closure. It was a disgraceful sell-out. The mistake was made in closing the Carlow factory which was down to greed. Some developers wanted a brownfield site in Carlow, which was why it was sold. We have the ideal location for a new factory in Lisheen, County Tipperary which the Minister passes on his way home to Cork. It is an excellent, centrally located site, with access to an excellent road network.

Sugar beet was a fabulous rotation crop and the sugar industry provided employment throughout the year from ploughing and tilling to the sowing of seed. As a buachaill óg I thinned beet, from which I gained a good experience of life. Then there was beet harvesting, the crop, the nuts and the pulp. It was an all year-round industry for farmers, their families and contractors. It was reckless to close down the industry. The role of Greencore and the former Government left much to be desired. It was a wonderful industry that had been set up from scratch with small farmers and nurtured into a significant industry with larger farmers. I came from a farm where we always had 40 acres given over to sugar beet production, as it was a wonderful rotation crop. It is still being grown and used as fodder; therefore, the expertise has not been lost. The Minister could re-establish the industry when the sugar quota goes after 2017. It is the one mark he could leave on his Department. I have already recognised that he is doing a good job.

The FCI is lobbing the Minister for Finance to examine some of its meaningful proposals. One involves the fuel rebate which was extended from hauliers to bus companies. Sadly, it was not extended to agricultural contractors. We all know about the cost of oil. The FCI is also looking for a simple, registered invoicing system for all farmers to ensure only registered contractors would be used to ensure payments were all above board. I am not knocking any farmer’s son who wants to buy a tractor to do some contracting work, but it has to be done within the legitimate system. Contractors are struggling, but we have a professional organisation led by Mr. Timothy O’Brien. Their concerns and proposals need to be listened to and systems put in place to ensure contractors can achieve the Harvest 2020 and Common Agricultural Policy targets. Farming is now a challenging and highly skilled task. Most farmers hire in contractors because they have to concentrate on getting it right.

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