Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Like my colleagues, I welcome the tillage farmers, who have made strenuous efforts to attend for this important motion. I spoke to them at the protest outside.

I welcome the opportunity to support the motion on behalf of the Labour Party. The motion seeks to address the grave situation and significant income difficulties experienced by tillage farmers in 2016, in particular the 250 or 300 farmers who have suffered losses that imperil the future of their grain farming operations. Surviving a season in which the cost of production exceeds returns from the crop is difficult, but when one has no returns at all, one is in the midst of a catastrophe. A corollary of the losses, for example, the loss of straw, is a significant increase in the price of that commodity for other farmers. This affects all farming sectors. As a former agriculture consultant, I would be concerned about this factor were I still involved in that game.

The overall issue has been addressed in a comprehensive fashion by the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Like a number of the Deputies present, I am a member of that committee. Deputy Deering is an excellent Chairman. We submitted a detailed report to the Minister's Department that recommended an imperative to support those tillage farmers who were gravely affected by the unusual weather events. The committee noted that, while the financing required to put in place a crisis support fund would not be insubstantial, it would have been small in the context of the overall expenditure envelope available to the Department. There is a precedent, namely, the difficulties that arose with potatoes and vegetable crops in 2010.

That many tillage farmers face severe financial difficulties as a result of last year must be considered in light of the fact that the tillage sector also suffered over the preceding four years or so. It is an ongoing problem. There are significant substantive issues to be addressed in the sector and a specific and focused strategy needs to be developed. This will necessitate the consideration of mid to long-term programmes of support.

In reply to the committee, the Minister referred to the difficulties in providing aid in the context of state aid rules. While I appreciate that such issues cannot be discounted easily, it was our collective view that the Minister should consider the introduction of a specific crop loss aid package for the tillage sector targeted at the affected farmers. Deputy Jim Daly referred to the need for a targeted and precise scheme, but the affected farmers have been carefully and clearly identified. The recent Teagasc conference confirmed that there were negative margins for tillage farmers in 2016. The return from the market for producing a serial crop last year was negative across the board. In the course of meeting with the farmers protesting outside the Dáil today, it was articulated that a failure to intervene positively could damage their confidence in future.

That would have a knock-on effect, not just on feedstuffs produced for the wider farming community but also for the malting industry. We have a lot of rural craft brewing industry in that area that could be severely and negatively impacted so this issue has wider connotations than what we are discussing.

Specific targeted cash aid could be provided with direct compensation payments of up to the sum of €15,000, reflected in the state aid de minimisceiling. Farmers who are in a critical situation at present are well aware that those who have benefitted from such payment could not avail of similar compensation in the event of another crisis within a three-year window. The question at issue that must be addressed here and now is that the three-year window will not worry them as some of those affected will not be in the industry at all unless help is forthcoming at this juncture.

This issue has been ongoing since autumn 2016. My colleague, Deputy Sean Sherlock, who is from the Cork East constituency raised this issue at a meeting before Christmas. We spoke to a number of farmers who were already impacted by the weather at the national ploughing championships. It was pointed out to us that the entire west coast was in severe difficulty at that time, from Donegal down to Mayo, Galway and Clare, into Kerry, Cork, Tipperary, Roscommon and Meath and even a few farmers in Westmeath were affected. They signalled that they were in severe difficulty at that time, which means the situation has been ongoing for the past five months.

The Minister should be able to seek a derogation or exemption pursuant to the agricultural block exemption regulations which permits compensation to be paid to affected applicants where they have sustained damage that arose from a severe climatic event. The Minister should examine the rainfall data for September 2016. One of my colleagues read it out. There were unbelievable levels of rainfall over a 25-day period in the affected areas. High relative humidity was also experienced over the same period so even if a crop was produced it was worthless in terms of recoverability. This is the equivalent of a disastrous situation. One could not recover anything as the condition of the land prevented any attempt at harvesting crops, disastrous and all as they were, but most crops were lost in any event.

It is acknowledged that the €150 million agriculture cashflow support loan scheme may have a useful role in the future for certain farmers but it is clear that it does not sufficiently address the issues concerning tillage farmers at this juncture, which were so eloquently set out by the farmers demonstrating outside the Dáil this evening. Specifically, it is of no benefit to farmers affected by the weather conditions in 2016. One cannot operate retrospectively in terms of costs that have already been incurred.

The joint committee outlined a number of options in its submission to the Department which were predicated on an immediate response to the crisis such as cash aid being made readily available and other medium-term to long-term actions required to help develop the tillage sector in the future. It is likely that a crisis such as that recently experienced will recur.

I wish to address another big issue that has been consistently raised for a number of years by the IFA. I have had my battles with the IFA and will have more in the future. The IFA's national grain chairperson, Liam Dunne, who I greatly respect, has for many years focused on the necessity of a temporary suspension of EU import tariffs on fertilisers to help reduce the significant input cost on farmers, especially those engaged in the tillage sector. Something must be done in that regard. We are now talking about custom duties, levies and tariffs. I note there was a recent reference by the IFA to the complete dysfunctionality of the fertiliser market. The view is that farmers are being held to ransom by the way the European fertiliser industry operates. That is a matter of concern. The description arises following recent brazen attempts by European manufacturers of fertilisers to foist significant price increases onto the backs of farmers. In order to help secure the future of the tillage sector the Minister must consider the temporary abolition of tariffs, anti-dumping duties and levies on fertiliser imports. The Minister must seek to try to achieve that at EU level. I accept he is probably trying to work to that end but it will not be easy and he must try to bring together people who are supportive in that regard. The French have never been behind the door in coming forward. Indeed, they disregard most of the regulations anyhow. I laugh at the manner in which officials from the Department run around the country. If one were to hang a bit of bacon outside the door they would close down the shop, but if one goes to Paris or anywhere else one sees bacon hanging up and everything flying around it and no remark is made. We must bring an end to the nonsense of always kowtowing and bending the knee to the various authorities. I have no time for them.

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