Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We will commence. I am moving this motion, along with my Fianna Fáil colleagues, and we hope for widespread support, which I am confident we will get across the House. Unfortunately, this is not the first time Fianna Fáil Deputies have come together in recent months to move a motion asking the Government to recognise a very real fodder crisis and respond appropriately to it. This matter has also been raised with the Government on numerous occasions by the farming organisations, including the IFA, ICMSA, ICSA, INHFA and Macra na Feirme. I welcome the many farmers who are present in the Visitors Gallery tonight. There is a strong delegation from the IFA along with its president, Mr. Joe Healy. The IFA, along with the other organisations, has emphasised for many months the problem that was coming down the tracks. Unfortunately, the Government has at all stages ignored the warnings and walked headlong into a crisis for which it is unacceptably unprepared.

Our motion outlines some immediate actions that are required to assist farmers who are experiencing tremendous hardship as a result of the shortage of fodder. We want a meal voucher scheme to be put in place. A hardship fund should be available for those who cannot afford to buy fodder over the coming weeks. We are also seeking a low-interest loan, to be put in place immediately, to help tide farmers over what has been an exceptionally long winter, and a long year before that. We are also seeking that there be understanding regarding the administration of farm inspections. There should be a hold put on them for the coming weeks. GLAS and sheep welfare scheme payments should be expedited and fully paid. We are seeking to ensure that a structure and standing committee will be put in place to ensure this problem does not recur. It is the second time in five years that we have experienced a fodder crisis. Unfortunately, despite there having been one in the recent past, the Government has been totally unprepared. Its response has been entirely woeful. It has left the farming community without the type of leadership it expects from a Government, including the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. We now need, although it is too late in the day, a proper response from the Government in this regard.

The initial fodder scheme that was put in place to transport fodder from the south to the north and west has been shown to be completely wrong-headed. At the time, the Minister ignored the demands for a meal voucher scheme. He had not made the contingency plans to import fodder. He had to make it up on the go. We now need the Government to respond appropriately. Over the course of the debate tonight, my colleagues and the other Deputies in the House will outline what is required in this regard. I hope that the Government will at long last understand the role it needs to play and respond in a way that shows understanding of the plight of farmers across the country.

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