Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

-----about rural Ireland. I agree fully with the Deputy that when farmers are doing well, this country does well. We have to protect our farming community. We support the motion from Fianna Fáil. That comes from personal reflection. At Christmas, I visited a sheep farmer in County Donegal. He is a hardworking, capable individual and he was just broken as he split open another bag of feed and realised the cost involved. He could not bring his animals up because the weather was so bad. It had rained for six months solid in County Donegal. Even earlier this month, at Easter, a farmer in the west - he is a good man - said that he was trying his best but that he could not put his cattle out because he knew they would destroy the field. He was running out of options. It is that personal tragedy that is real.

We have to address this matter. The question is how we should do so. What do we do differently? What do we change? Given that this is the second time in five years we are importing grass and fodder from the UK to feed our animals, it is time to think about what is happening and what do we need to do differently. Our first premise should be that we want to protect Irish family farms. It is important for this country that we have a family farming structure. I think that is viable and we can do it. We can design a system that gives rise to the creation of family farms. That would have huge knock-on consequences, not just for rural Ireland but also for the nature of the food system. I refer to how we protect biodiversity, how we manage our water systems and how we store carbon. Deputy Bríd Smith is right - we have to think globally. We cannot just continue on and think that everything is always going to stay the same. Things change. The world is changing and Irish farming has to change with it in order to ensure its future, its success and its viability in every sense. Those farmers to whom I refer are paying out to everyone at present. They are paying out to the agrochemical companies and they are paying bank managers' salaries. The farmers in question are paying at every turn but they are not getting paid. The current system is not serving Irish family farms. They are not properly paid and, as a result, the system needs to change.

This fodder crisis is a signal of that. What do we do? What would we suggest? I am of the view Irish farming is going to go green. I think that is the future.

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