Paul Connaughton (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue. This is, without doubt, a very serious problem, but some of the Deputies opposite appear to blame the Minister for not being able to control the weather, such is the predicament in which we find ourselves. We faced into a spring the likes of which we had never seen previously. A Deputy on the opposite side of the House said he had never seen anything like it; therefore, how were we supposed to predict we would have a winter lasting almost eight months is beyond me.

We have two options in dealing with the crisis. We can be strategic in the way the Minister has gone about it and try to take a hands-on approach or announce a fund of €5 million, €8 million or €10 million. That sounds good and it would make for a very good press release, but there is no explanation of the source of the money. In these tough times when the money woul have to come from another budget in six months time, there would be a shortfall somewhere else. We can do what the Minister has been doing and take a strategic approach to it. We can work on the ground, talk to farmers, work with organisations and get across what can and cannot be done to address the issue. That is what the Minister has done and he has been complimented on it.

It has been said we will face a fodder problem at the back end of the year. In most parts of the country we are already four or six weeks behind and it is important that we now look to see how we can fix it. Many on this side of the House have raised the issue with the Minister and I know he is doing everything he can to get farm payments out to farmers as soon as possible. Many agri-environment option scheme payments have been made. I have concerns, as I am sure does Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív, about individual farmers, but we are not here to discuss individual farmers. We have to work through all cases, but it is easy to raise the one case when hundreds of euro have been paid out. We must keep working on the basis that we will get a payment out to everyone as quickly as we can possibly do so.

This is a crisis. There are many farmers in tough circumstances, but I compliment the Minister on tackling on this issue in a strategic way. From what I have heard in the debate, it appears his only failings are that he cannot control or predict the weather.

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