Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine whose presence is a sign of how proactive he is on this issue. I acknowledge his intervention with the subsidised transport scheme which has helped farmers in very difficult situations.

In the short time available I will set out the context for my county and the north-west region in general. Farmers have been working daily on this issue in the hope and expectation that the weather will improve. Last Saturday's rainfall, however, has effectively set farmers' plans back by approximately two weeks. Intertwined with this, the first cut of silage is behind by approximately one month, giving a figure of six weeks in total. This has put farmers in a very difficult position. There are farmers who, through their own resources, are getting meal, hay and silage from neighbouring farmers, but others are in a very difficult position. I have spoken to the Minister about farmers who have organised private transport to get fodder because the co-op does not have it. How can we help these farmers?

The stakeholders such as farmers' organisations and Teagasc need to draw up a plan for the next 12 months. I would include a more constructive engagement with our UK counterparts in that plan. With this in mind, I wrote formally this morning to the UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Mr. Owen Paterson, MP, to discuss how we could engage further with his Department and the devolved institutions in Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and the Crown dependencies to plan a strategy for the next 12 months. The problem does not apply simply to the here and now which is the difficulty for most farmers but will continue to the end of the year. With less silage being cut owing to the deplorable weather conditions, this difficulty will continue in the next nine to 12 months.

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