Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have the opportunity to contribute to this important debate. Recent months have been tough for farmers or anybody involved in the agriculture industry. The Minister, the co-operatives and everybody associated with it have been complimented, but what struck me was the generosity of ordinary farmers up and down the country to their neighbours. They helped each other out when they had surplus food and silage. That should be highlighted, as well as the hard work done by the Department and the Minister.

We are where we are, but the position has changed a great deal in the past week. While there will be more difficult weather conditions in certain areas, as the Minister has pointed out, the good weather enjoyed in recent days has had a huge impact. Where I come from in County Tipperary the grass is growing. As I travelled from Tipperary to Dublin today on every farm there were cattle out, even though the grass is short, but it is growing.

The issue is to plan, as Teagasc has urged in its latest article, for availability of fodder next winter because that is the real difficulty we are facing. Silage ground throughout the country has been grazed, but the reality is that we must use a lot more fertilizer in the coming weeks. In that regard, the Minister has been to the forefront in meeting the banks. That is where the difficulty lies, as people owe substantial amounts of money for meal following the winter. Nobody has denied this, but that is what people did. Farmers are resilient. They care for their animals and as a result have run up big bills. They now need fertilizer to plan for next winter and it is on that issue we must focus. I am not always happy with banks, but they need to be monitored on a regular basis in the coming months to make sure those who are in financial difficulty because of the extreme winter conditions are helped. I say "well done" to everybody involved in dealing with this tough crisis which did not cost the taxpayer billions of euro.

Regarding some of the contributions made by Deputies on the opposite side of the House, they would like to see the bad weather continue for another few weeks because then the motion would be relevant. It is not relevant tonight because things are changing. We should be fair about it. The problem is difficult to manage, but the reality is that it is being managed well in tough circumstances.

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