Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If the Minister believes that he has done a good job in dealing with the fodder crisis, I would hate to see what a bad job looks like. Apart from him, everyone in the Chamber will agree that we now have a crisis, one that could have been cut off at the pass and dealt with earlier, except he refused to do so. The main problem with the Government is that it likes to tie itself up in red tape. All of its schemes are difficult to access - it makes people jump through hoops to access them. It is afraid of being overly generous or giving a little bit extra. The bottom line seems to be constant penny pinching.

The Government persistently ignored the warnings from Deputy McConalogue and everyone on this side of the House. We told it that this would happen, but it ignored us. There are consequences for allowing matters to reach this stage. There is strain on farmers. One farmer who rang me was crying down the phone. I am not making up this - it actually happened. He is one of many who had been pushed to breaking point and was afraid that they would not be able to feed their cattle because the fodder crisis had got so bad and the Government seemed to have its head in the stand and was pretending this was not happening. The consequences mean that such farmers are in a difficult situation. They are wondering whether they will have enough fodder for next year because of the delays that have been caused.

The transport subsidy measure did not work. We told the Government the measure would not work, but it ignored us. The saving was not passed on to the farmer. In fact, the price of a bale increased. Today, I received a text message from a man from Swinford in my constituency of County Mayo. He told me he had been charged €80 for a bale. The quality of the fodder being acquired is often sub par.

The meal voucher scheme would have allowed farmers to plan ahead, put in decent quality food for their cattle and stretch out the bales they had, but the Government was worried about the extra few pennies, so it waited until matters got so incredibly bad that it was backed into a corner.

I do not have much time to contribute, but I can tell the Minister that the stress that he and his Department have caused is unforgivable. I wonder whether he will learn for when something like this comes around again.

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