Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy McConalogue for tabling the motion, and I welcome all of the contributions which have been informative and well deliberated upon. I also acknowledge the people in the Gallery who have an interest in this matter.

It is welcome we have an opportunity such as this to debate a particular sector in the agricultural economy which does not very often get the attention in this Chamber it deserves. I acknowledge this is an issue which a number of colleagues in all parties and none have raised since the back end of last year. I wish to take up a point made by a previous speaker, who alleged that governments live in a bubble, notwithstanding the fact his party is in government in another jurisdiction. I have been on the ground on this issue, and I acknowledge the particular difficulties for harvest associated with the weather at the back end of 2016. I was in the north west in Deputy McConalogue's constituency and met farmers' organisations there. I received an interesting presentation from the chairman of Leitrim IFA on Met Éireann's data for the relevant months of the harvest in that neck of the woods. It is a common thread down the west coast in particular.

It is important in this debate that we focus on the specifics of the sector particularly adversely hit by the weather and that we have a debate on the broader tillage sector. I firmly believe it is a sector that faces significant structural challenges and there is no silver bullet to address all of them. It requires the collective wisdom of us as elected representatives, the officials in the Department and all of the stakeholders. It is a critical component of our agricultural economy, which underpins many other aspects of it, particularly in the provision of ruminant feed. At present, we import more than two thirds of our ruminant feed and there is potential in this regard. Reference was made by Deputy Calleary to distilling. Not so many years ago we had four distilleries in the country. We are now heading for 20 distilleries and almost 100 microbreweries. The marketing and branding of all of these as Irish whiskeys or beers is contingent on a fundamentally economically sound tillage sector. This is something to which I am committed.

I do not question the bona fides of anybody else who has spoken in this regard. I met the stakeholders in the tillage industry on 5 October, and I gave a commitment to the farming organisations in the middle of the harvest. I stated we would wait until we had a bigger picture on the immediate crisis with regard to weather-related issues and that we also needed to consider other issues associated with the sector. I have a habit of keeping notes of my meetings. I was looking at the scale of the contributions from farming organisations and others. To nail the unfortunate lie that the Government has done nothing in respect of the tillage sector it is important to reflect on what contributions were made, what was sought and what has been delivered. This is not to state there are not other things that need to be further considered, and in the context of the Government's amendment we are open to doing this. Without naming any of the participants, I picked out six separate contributions on access to low-cost working finance. One of the most critical voices that left a lasting impression on me was one of the merchants present at the meeting in the Department, who stated 80% of the crop was being planted on merchant credit. This was in advance of the budget, when we were considering the most appropriate measures to take with relatively scarce financial resources.

I appreciate that perhaps for political reasons speaker after speaker here has knocked the loan product, but one speaker who knocked it went on to say the industry was built on borrowings for sprays, seeds and agricultural contractors, and it is because of this the loan product, which is not the silver bullet for all of these, will be of benefit because it is possible to substitute higher interest overdraft facilities and higher interest merchant credit with this facility. I confirm it will be launched, as we committed, and will be available by the end of this month.

Among other issues raised, one where we have followed through on what we heard at the tillage forum and delivered is putting €14 million of Exchequer funding into the loan product. I appreciate this may not be always necessary and in so doing we extended it. We had €11 million from Europe and put €14 million of Exchequer funding with it, and in so doing we extended it under de minimisstate aid rules to be available to the tillage sector. To state we have not put Exchequer funding into the tillage sector is not accurate. More may be needed.

Another issue raised is the tillage TAMS, and this will be launched, as my colleague the Minister of State, Deputy Doyle, stated, in a couple of weeks. I appreciate this in itself is not the answer to everything but it is one of the asks. The other ask was knowledge transfer, and this is now available for the tillage sector. The question of a compensation fund was raised at the meeting, and I acknowledge this. In our amendment to the motion we have committed to engaging further through the tillage forum with the stakeholders to explore how a scheme in this context might be devised and constructed. It is interesting to hear the range of contributions, because some speak about 250 participants, some speak about 350 participants and some speak about 400 participants. In a roundtable discussion with stakeholders we need to scope out about whom we are speaking and what the terms and conditions would be before we rush headlong into establishing a scheme. In fairness to my colleague, Deputy Jim Daly, who has bent my ears on several occasions, his analogy is not lost in the context of stating if we have a poorly devised scheme-----

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