Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not want to disparage or scaremonger, but there is nothing left to measure, there is nothing left to cut and there is nothing left to harvest. This is unprecedented. The Minister of State, Deputy Doyle, is beside the Minister. He is a cereal grower. He knows about the stunting in growth. We know that spring barley is being cut with a foot of straw or less. There will be a huge crisis. We know a large volume of cereal was not even sown last year because of the economic situation. It is not viable. The time for counting, studies and focus groups is over. The banks are not our friends. Some of the co-ops are great and some of them are not. As Deputy Cahill and others have said, the meat factories are exploiting this. It is time for action. The Minister should give over with the census and the counting because there is nothing to count. People are counting their anguish. It is traumatic for farmers to watch this. We are going to have huge issues maintaining water supplies for them come September because of the prolonged drought. When the Minister comes back here in September we will be in a real crisis. That is why I thought there would be some cohesive action. He did not act during the crisis in spring. I am thankful that we got through that but this is an unprecedented crisis that is recognised worldwide. It is insulting to use the language of counting and censuses because there is nothing to count apart from stock that are hungry. We see crops wilting away and melting. There will be no supplies at all for the winter following last spring, the failure to grow this summer and this real crisis in growth.

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