Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Ceann Comhairle the best of luck in his new role. I wish everyone in the House well in the coming week. I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak on this issue. As the Minister knows and as Europe knows, many sectors of the agriculture industry are in trouble at the moment. We are well aware that the dairy sector was put out as the new Santy that was coming right across Europe as quotas disappeared. I warned many people that this would rebound back. Many people who borrowed money are suffering. They will probably go through a rough year this year. With luck, things will progress a bit for next year and should be better.

The sheep sector has toddled along for the last few years. Prices have been somewhat better over the last year. There is no doubt that we have to give the people involved in this sector some help. I am not saying we can give them everything they want, but I emphasise that they need a certain degree of help. We have lost things at the moment. This is clear when one goes to the mountains. I think we should have concentrated on the likes of organic lamb. The animals living on any of our mountains are basically organic. We should be selling them to Europe. We should not be making excuses for why the animals above on the mountain are not organic.

I think we have a tough back-end coming with the beef sector. The number of cattle exported in 2015 was 65,000 less than the equivalent number in 2010. That is a phenomenal number of cattle. If we do not export them on the hoof, our good old friends in the factories will make sure to drop prices every week when they see the glut of cattle coming out. I think we have to be ready for this. Manners have to be put on the factories that are screwing farmers year in, year out. The feed lots that those factories have at the moment are questionable. If they are feeding a large number of cattle in those feed lots, they can distort the numbers that are coming out each week. I suggest that we hit trouble any time the weekly cattle kill exceeds 27,000 or 28,000. This has to be tackled. Europe has to come on board, even if intervention has to open for a while.

We cannot have a situation where farmers who are fattening cattle are losing money. If this is happening, they will eventually go away. In fairness, I understand that Egypt is going to open. I know there are new markets on the horizon. We have to do whatever is necessary to entice the animal on foot out of the country. This will put manners on the factory system. Obviously, there will be more Friesians coming from the dairy herd. As I have said previously, I encourage the Minister to bring forward an initiative that would allow calves under the age of four, five or six weeks to be taken out of this country rapidly. Holland, Spain and other countries are pretty good at driving such calves on and killing them as veal. I think we need to do this.

I would like to mention something that is within the Minister's grasp at the moment and needs to be done. Some 14 or 15 months ago, not long after I was first elected to this House, the European Investment Bank and Commissioner Hogan announced that low funding would be made available to the dairy sector and indeed all farmers. When I was at the transport committee in Europe, I quizzed the head of the European Investment Bank on this matter. He got pretty upset when he was told he had not delivered everything he had said he would deliver, not to mind talking about giving the same thing to the transport industry. He said it was coming. I accept that an announcement was made by Glanbia and the dairy guys last week or the week before, but where is the announcement for the west of Ireland? Not one dairy co-op has taken it up. I have rang them, but they do not seem to be worried or bothered about it.

With all due respect to farmers down in the south - Glanbia might be on its game and fair play to it if it is - they can get the low money down there. However, farmers in the west of Ireland, above in Donegal or in Leinster for that matter might not be able to get it. A system needs to be rammed through a bank or something - we could even put it through a credit union - to make sure this funding is made available to beef farmers and farmers in the other sectors, some of whom are struggling. I ask the Minister to make sure the scheme mentioned by Commissioner Hogan and the head of the European Investment Bank is adhered to because this low money needs to be provided if we are to talk about recovery in rural Ireland. I will give the Minister an example. A credit union in a local area near me at home brought out a loan at a rate of something like 5%. Between €2.5 million and €3 million was borrowed in that area. This generated an unbelievable amount of revenue in a small community.

I heard people saying earlier in the debate on this topic that we need to make sure we sow more forestry. I can tell Deputies about how forestry has changed in case they do not know. It is no longer sown on boggy ground because that is not allowed. Now it is being sown on land that is a bit better. The west of Ireland was earmarked for much of this forestry. I want to make it clear that if this great idea of sowing forestry almost exclusively in a certain part of the country is adhered to, we will have to consider what to do with the people of that region. Should we run them out of it? What will we do with the local communities, schools and shops? Are we going to decide to close one section of Ireland because the land there might not be of the same quality as the land elsewhere? The people of the area might not have the dairy cows or the tillage ground like the rest of the country. We have to make sure we do not go down a road we might regret. We cannot shove everyone into the towns because we do not have the facilities there.

I know the Minister is aware that the pig sector is in trouble at the moment. If we keep going down a road that makes farmers hit a stop-gap every few years, they will have no certainty or consistency with regard to prices. I know the Minister has spoken about producer groups and all of that. That is fine and okay, but we need to make sure the cartels - the shops and the factories - are not constantly driving the agenda for farmers.

I urge the Minister, with his inspectors and the appeals board, to ensure farmers are treated fairly. The introduction of the yellow card system is to be welcomed. The relationship with farmers should be such that the objective is to help them rather than take money from them. As I have stated many times over the past year, when it comes to the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, the objective must be to protect the family farm. Any increased use of Pillar 2 must be directed towards small family farms. It must be remembered that 95% of money invested in a family farm is reaped locally. This is evident from all the relevant statistics. Any reduction in that investment will impact negatively on local shops, local schools and local communities. I would ask the Minister to consider that.

GLAS has been changed a few times. I do not know what is going on in Europe or in Ireland that a scheme can be changed three times in one year. I cannot understand how one day low input permanent pastures in the meadows on a half and half basis was acceptable only for this to be changed to a requirement to all of one or none of the other. In regard to marginal land, one cannot use a dribble bar in Leitrim, or even in my area, because the quality of land cannot support the tanker. What about the farmer who has sheep from which no slurry is derived? The response is usually that one can sow wild bird cover. One can sow wild bird cover in the Golden Vale but one cannot sow it in marginal land, particularly in west Cork and Kerry. There are parts of Ireland to which this is not suited. We need to tailor schemes to resolve these issues if farming is to be viable into the future.

On land use, many of the farms currently coming up for sale are being bought up by vulture funds. These vulture funds are working for the banks and are buying up land, often comprising 40 to 50 acres, adjacent to working farms. The former Land Commission while not perfect ensured that land was retained within communities. What is happening now is that outside interests, often American vulture funds, are investing money and local farmers are losing out. This issue needs to be tackled.

The issue of farm debt also needs to be addressed. With the funding from the European Investment Bank, EIB, longer term loans may be possible. If we do not keep people in their communities or keep farmers in operation our exports will decline, as will other sectors of the food chain. As a country Ireland produces better food than any other country in Europe. I have no doubt about that. Ireland can compete with the best. Let us stick our chests out and when Europe raises issues such as carbon emissions and killing off the national herd, we should quickly point out that we can produce meat or any other type of agriculture product more efficiently than any of our European counterparts. For once, let them take the heat and leave the Irish people alone, bearing in mind the recent crisis they have come through.

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