Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We know, and this reinforces the Deputy's point, that on 50% of farms either the holder and-or their spouse has off-farm employment to try and deal with the economic situation they face. Commodity price variation and volatility is an increasing feature of agriculture markets and it is very difficult to deal with. As the Deputy knows, a number of measures have been introduced to support farmers in regard to the price volatility, including direct payments to farmers which are estimated by Teagasc to be approximately €17,000 per farm, or €20,000 for dairy farms. That is a fundamental hedge against volatility which is going to be very important in the challenging years ahead. As the Deputy has said, the budget decision was taken last year with regard to income averaging from three to five years to give more scope for income smoothing to help deal with that commodity price cycle. I am sure the Minister, Deputy Creed will consider that issue again in this year's budget given the volatility we are seeing in prices currently.

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