Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is quite correct. Putting measures in place, for example, for loans, to help the farmer to get over the difficult times has always been the solution to try and deal with volatility and what I suggest here is that the Government needs to have a plan to address volatility in the first place to ensure it does not arise as often or as deep when it happens. I hope the Government concurs with my belief that to do that, when we move into the next number of years where the Minister of State was talking about Food Wise 2025, we would look at not only increasing the volume but the value of produce, particularly the value to the farmer.

At the essence of all of this is that the Irish farmer does not get the level of payment for the work that he or she puts in, given the quality he or she is producing. It is a family farm that produces the product in Ireland in the first place. The animals all are grass fed. They are free roaming. They are free from all hormones. They are free GM. We have all these elements in place, there is traceability from farm to fork and yet the farmer finds that he or she will only get an average price with the farmer in other parts of Europe which we all have visited where we have seen the product, particularly the meat product, is produced in vast feed lots where there are thousands of cattle which never see daylight and are never on a family farm. Surely the Irish farmer should be getting a price way above the European average when one looks at the model of farming we have and it is also the kind of product that the European consumer has clearly stated he or she wants. Is there a plan in place to ensure that the Irish farmer will get an enhanced price for his or her product and have transparency around all of that?

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