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

The apology is accepted. The one thing we have to realise is that while we can have a forum to talk about tillage prices and the grain price, which I welcome, those people who have cut their grain have something to give a merchant to pay for concentrates, fertiliser and seed they got during the year, but others have nothing to send in to the mill because they cannot cut it. This is a section of people who need to be sorted now. The price of grain is fine for those who have something. However, this problem has moved on from battling for a better price for grain to having no grain, or to having it in the ground but not being able to cut it, or not knowing what to do with it because it is rotting at the buds.

There is another side nobody is talking about. While we can get grain in from Europe if we are in trouble with supply, we cannot get straw because we will not bring straw in from France or elsewhere to throw under cattle because it would not make economic sense. I ask the Minister to deal with that section of people immediately. I agree with the Minister in regard to the forum, where we can look at the price of grain and the bigger problem. I also ask the Minister to address the slurry crisis because farmers are panicking.

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