Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on behalf of farmers, in particular those in rural Kerry and Ireland. As a small farmer, I can identify with all their current problems as they strive to continue farming. This week the Irish Farmers' Journalreported that it costs €900 to maintain a cow over a 12-month period, including feeding it throughout the winter. Many farmers are not lucky enough to have calves. Many other things happen before they are fit for sale.

Weanlings are now selling below what it costs to keep them. Feeders lost €200 per head last year, and as a result suckler farmers, who are trying to produce weanlings, will be hit with a €200 deficit this year in marts and markets. Like all other areas of farming, suckler farmers are struggling. They are the foundation of the beef industry. I call on the Government to consider the request from farming organisations to give €200 per sucker cow as a premium to sustain farmers until things improve and ensure family farms continue to operate in rural Ireland.

Sheep farmers are also in serious trouble. Lamb prices decreased from €10 to €7 this year.

The margins are very small and when farmers are hit with such losses they will be in serious trouble all along the hillsides of Kerry where they are up late and early trying to endure and survive and when everything else is surmounted they have to deal with the fox. There were severe losses as a result of the bad weather which we had this year at lambing time. The sheep industry is in serious jeopardy as well. I support the call for a €20 ewe premium to ensure the viability of sheep production in rural Kerry.

Dairy farmers are in a serious crisis. I blame the previous Government for not advising farmers properly when the quotas ended. Farmers were advised to increase production. It was said markets were available in China and elsewhere and now we know the Chinese have no notion in the world of drinking milk. The market is not what was predicted and the new farmers that got into the dairy business are in serious trouble. They bought land, built sheds, bought cows and now they are selling the milk for below what it cost to produce it. How long does the Minister think that will last? Those people are in serious trouble. Those farmers were hell bent on working and they knew what was involved but they did not realise a market would not exist for the milk.

The monopolies of factories and their stranglehold on prices is unfair. Farmers are not being paid properly for what they produce. We have other problems as well in farming in rural Kerry. All farmers are losing money but the forestry that was blown down in 2013 have not been replanted. It is costing money to clear them and very little money is to be had for the timber that is taken out because it is damaged. Another problem is that there is no grant available for marginal land in rural areas to plant trees and the land is not fit for much else. If a grant were available to plant trees on such land many farmers could provide jobs but approval is not being given. One must have 80% of good agricultural land and 20% of marginal land in order to get a grant, which means that system will not work.

I ask the Government-----

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