Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to discuss this financial resolution. As my colleagues noted, Fianna Fáil has taken a very responsible approach in recent months, taking into account the challenges facing the country and the need for stable Government. We are aware, too, of what the alternatives to such an approach might be when we see what has happened in Spain, which still does not have a government despite the major challenges facing that country. We were keen to be in government following the election and fought hard for that outcome. Having accepted that we did not have the required support, we decided to seek to offer the most effective Opposition there has been in this House in the context of the unique circumstances that presented after the election.

We have taken the same approach to the budget, our concern being to ensure it was framed in a way that was significantly different from what was rejected by the public in the election and from the approach taken by the previous Government. Although that Administration had a difficult job to do in hard times, in carrying out that responsibility it placed the burden and pressure on the people who could least afford it. Our approach is very different from that of other parties and Independent Members on the Opposition benches. Despite having huffed and puffed for five years in the previous Dáil and having put themselves before the people and sought a mandate for their platform, when the opportunity arose to form a new Government, they headed for the hills and were nowhere to be found for several weeks or even months.

Anytime they were found, their sole contribution was to peep up and canvass for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to go into government, neglecting the platform and the canvass they had undertaken in the election campaign. A very dim view has been taken by many people who voted for them in terms of the value of the vote that they cast. Some members of the public will simply cast an opposition vote. I remember canvassing a person during the general election and fighting hard for his vote. He told me that he would not be able to vote for me on that occasion, despite the fact that he wanted to give me a number two. He said he was voting for another party but that he would never want that party to be in government. He said that its members were great at opposition and at shouting, so he was going to vote for them. He liked the way they shouted but he was not voting for them to go into government. Maybe they were true to that particular person's vote but that was the exception. People who actually voted for one party or another, or for an Independent, ultimately wanted to see the mandate they were giving to that person implemented in government. That is the approach that my party took. That is also the approach that the public wanted my party to take, as well as other parties who failed to live up their responsibilities and who continue to huff and puff now. They failed and showed their true colours because when they got the opportunity to take on responsibility, they would not do so.

Regarding the influence Fianna Fáil has brought to bear on this budget, the ESRI has shown that this is the first budget in the past five or six years which is progressive in nature and which gives the small benefits of the improving economy to those who most need them. That is the direction that has been taken although I would have a number of problems with many measures in the budget. Certainly, in terms of the steer of the budget, it is important that it is going in that direction. In several previous budgets under the last Government, the ratio of expenditure increases to tax reductions was 50:50. Indeed, in the first year that there was a little money available to spend, we saw the top rate of tax being reduced by 1%. That happened three budgets ago while at the same time there was massive pressure on our public services. In this particular budget, the expenditure to taxation ratio was 3:1. Furthermore, the tax measures are targeted at those who are most under pressure. The general thrust of this budget is a welcome departure and is starting to reflect the views of the public. Fianna Fáil is making every effort to exert whatever pressure it can to ensure that the fairness in public services that we seek to achieve is reflected in public policy, albeit from the Opposition benches.

As my party's spokesperson on agriculture, I wish to refer to a number of measures in the budget relevant to farming. There are some welcome measures in the budget, particularly the €25 million fund for a new sheep scheme. There has also been a welcome increase in the funding for the rural development programme, RDP. However, it must be pointed out that the form and record of the Government on the beef data and genomics programme, BDGP and the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS, under the RDP, is not good. In both cases, we have seen an underspend over the past two years, which were the first two years of the reformed CAP programme. The upshot is that farmers have been missing out on much needed income. The uptake of those schemes was less than what was expected because the schemes were closed prematurely and there was also a delay in commencing them. Fianna Fáil will be pushing in every way possible to ensure that the RDP allocation is spent in full. We will also work to ensure that the aforementioned schemes are reopened and brought up to capacity. In respect of the BDGP in particular, we will seek to ensure, in the context of the underspend from the first two years, that a payment of €200 per cow is made to support our suckler herd, if at all possible. That is our objective in terms of the RDP underspend and the BDGP.

The loan fund is a new departure which will be welcomed by some. It is certainly is something which, at EU Commission level, will be seen as a financial instrument that is available to farmers to deal with income volatility. However, it is crucial to ensure that it does not draw from single farm payments or from payments to the various agricultural schemes. While the loan facility is something that farmers will certainly avail of, particularly those who are under financial pressure, there must be a separate scheme or payment for the tillage industry. The Government has indicated in recent days that the loan fund should be the preferred avenue for providing support to tillage farmers, even those who have actually lost their crop this year. I would draw a very strong distinction between those farmers who have actually harvested their crops, although they are under pressure for the fourth year in a row, and those farmers who have not been able to harvest their crop. The former need our support but the latter are in a crisis situation. They have not gone away. They are still out there, dealing with the after effects of the very bad weather this year. They have either not harvested at all or if they have done so in the past few weeks, they have harvested a crop that is worthless. They do not have the cash flow or income to be able to meet their outgoings. This is not confined to specific parts of the country and affects only a minority of tillage farmers, but for them it is a crisis. If they are to be able to continue in the sector, the Government must provide an emergency or crisis fund to support them and to acknowledge the tremendous difficulty they find themselves in.

I wish to touch on the issue of the challenges facing the mushroom sector. The Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine met the EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Phil Hogan, this morning. My party spokesperson on horticulture and food, Deputy Jackie Cahill, raised the matter of the mushroom sector with the Commissioner. As a party, Fianna Fáil will continue to push this issue. The particular and very immediate pressure on the mushroom sector demands a response from Government to ensure that the sector can survive and pick up again. There is a good future for the mushroom industry in the longer term but it is under very significant pressure at the moment.

There are several other issues on which I look forward to achieving progress and following up.

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