Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Michael Creed, for coming into the Chamber to respond in person to it, as he has been at the tillage sector forum today.

It is certainly a very important issue and a matter of the utmost urgency. We need to see a move from the talking that will happen at the forum to actually seeing action and delivery for farmers. There is no doubt that there has been a growing crisis in our tillage sector in recent weeks as the weather has failed to improve and as farmers on the west coast from Kerry and Cork up to my county of Donegal have been unable to get the crops in. At this stage, a fair percentage of the crop in those counties is lost and many of those farmers are facing financial disaster in terms of their income this year and their ability to pay bills.

This is an issue for me and my fellow members on the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Cahill and Senator Paul Daly, as well as Deputies Aylward and O'Keeffe. Fianna Fáil is seeking an emergency crisis fund to support those farmers who have not been able to get their crops. I know farming organisations are also looking for it. Prices have fallen four years in a row. The price per tonne this year is expected to be approximately €130. That is below the cost of production, so everyone in the grain industry is suffering a lot of stress this year. I know Teagasc is indicating that the average income on a tillage farm this year is expected to drop by €14,000.

There is a real crisis for those farmers who have not been able to get their grain out of the ground. Many on the east coast, where rainfall levels have been below normal, have been surprised to hear that rainfall on the west coast has been up to one and half times what would normally be the case. Grounds are still exceptionally wet and saving the crop has proved to be impossible. Is it the Minister's intention to put in place a crisis fund for those farmers who have not been able to harvest their crops? Is this something he has raised with his European counterparts and is it on the agenda for the forthcoming Council of Ministers meeting next Monday where it will be important to try to get consent from his colleagues at European level to contribute to a fund? We know it was put in place for the livestock and dairy sectors when they faced income crises. It should and must be delivered to support the tillage sector, which is currently in crisis.

There is precedent for this. At the end of last year, a crisis fund was set up to support farmers who lost their fodder. If we go back to 2009, a crisis fund was put in place for the horticulture industry. There is no doubt on the part of anyone involved in the agriculture sector that the tillage sector needs this support. Since 2012, the tillage sector has lost 100,000 acres and this pressure will only continue to increase. We are not self-sufficient in grain so it is a sector that needs to be encouraged. Unless the Minister can deliver that over the coming number of days, many farmers will be facing very difficult scenarios this autumn.

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