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

I acknowledge that the past six months have been extremely difficult for the farming community due to ongoing adverse weather. I agree with the previous speaker in that I believe we will come through this crisis because of the collaborative effort that is being made, which is the hallmark of the industry. That collaborative effort is manifest in the difficulties individual farmers have in the context of a fodder shortage. I acknowledge the role farm organisations and individual farmers are playing, in terms of good neighbourliness, in helping to resolve this issue. Rural communities generally, the co-operative movement, which is an extension of the meitheal approach, and my Department through its offices, Teagasc etc. have all been instrumental in that collaborative endeavour which will see us out.

I do not accept the premise of the motion, which serves a particular political narrative, that I have been slow to react. I do not accept that last September or October, this was a crisis we could envisage for April of this year. We have acted in the Department at all times in appropriate and measured ways as this story evolved. We had the permission to bring forward payments at the back end of last year at the maximum level. We had fodder budgeting advice from Teagasc, which always had meal as a part of it. That was the advice to stretch the fodder one had through the use of meal. We had the transport initiative at the end of January, we had an extension of that and a modification of the terminology to support imports of fodder at a later stage. Through all of that, we were in constant contact with those co-operatives, Teagasc, farm organisations etc. To be fair, we have acted appropriately in what has been a dynamic and evolving situation.

In the context of people who wish to claim they are the guardians of the family farm, I am who I am because I was raised on a family farm. It is who I am. I do not question the credentials of anybody here but I certainly do not surrender that concern to any quarter. I do not differentiate between big and small in the context of that family farming structure; they are all a part of that agricultural community. I will put my credentials upfront against any evaluation of anybody else in terms of looking after those who are most marginalised. We introduced and, by coincidence, paid through this crisis for the first time a sheep subsidy of €10 per ewe. That was not in place before. It was a commitment from this side of the House to acknowledge a sector that faced particular challenges.

As for the €25 million in additional moneys, which I acknowledge will be paid later this year, to restore cuts that were imposed by others in areas of natural constraint, ANC, we have skewed that payment deliberately towards smaller farmers. I do not surrender one iota in terms of the credentials of this party, myself, or the Government in terms of trying to look after rural communities and farmers.

There are issues. I take on board the point made by Deputy Martin Kenny and suggested by others. There are uncomfortable messages here in terms of climate change. Deputies Smyth and Ryan made that point. We are dealing with the visual personification of that challenge. It is uncomfortable and it is something with which we have to deal. I am committed to bringing together all of the aforementioned stakeholders in order that we can put in place the appropriate steps. Some of those will be steps in which my Department, Teagasc, the co-operatives and individual farmers will be obliged to acknowledge they all have individual roles to play. This is not a simplistic issue of saying we are over-stocked.

I am disappointed that Deputy Michael Collins would stand in the elected Parliament and say that cattle were dying of hunger and starvation in west Cork.

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