Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. The Minister is right that income and expenditure figures for the preceding year are generally used as an indicator. The problem is that the allocations being made are on the income achieved in 2012 but anybody farming in 2012 was feeding cattle with silage or hay cultivated in 2011 when we had a good summer. My county has had 19 months of almost continuous rain. A farmer told me at the weekend that he should not be entitled to an acreage payment but a litreage payment because there is so much water on the ground.

I am aware the Government has €108 million available for farm assist and that the saving this year was projected to be €3.75 million, which is approximately 3%. That can be achieved, but it must be pushed down the road, so to speak.

I note from the Minister's reply that there is flexibility regarding this issue. I ask, through the Minister of State's office, that the Minister for Social Protection and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine would introduce some flexibility in terms of that €108 million within the next 24 to 48 hours to ensure that either farm assist can be advanced to people who actively need it or that something is done with the single farm payment.

This is not an issue for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine or the Department of Social Protection. It is a humanitarian issue. If this country can afford to give €21 million to the World Food Programme over three years for developing countries, it behoves us to try to do something for our own farmers whose animals are starving in their farmyards. That is not an exaggeration. If anybody in the Department wants me to give them the details of farmers who currently cannot feed their farmers, I will gladly do that but I appeal to the Minister of State to use his influence to get the Ministers for Social Protection and Agriculture, Food and the Marine to come up with some scheme, be it an advance on farm assist, an advance on the single farm payment or a restructuring on the saving for farm assist that can be made within the remainder of the calendar year for 2013.

See this speech in context