Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The programme for Government is loud in its claim that it would support agriculture. I am glad the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine is beside the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection. The suckler herd is diminishing and this will have a devastating impact on our rural economy. Deputy Creed has been the Minister for almost two years and has done absolutely nothing. The farmers were promised funding which they have not got. There is a massive fodder crisis to compound the problem this year. In July, the Minister told me he would do an audit in September and report back. September is almost over and there is no more fodder available because there was a major drought, although thankfully not as bad in some parts of the country as in others.

The farmers have not seen a cent of the low-cost funding that the Minister was to make available in this year's budget. How will they survive and be sustained and sustain our economy, as they always did, for decades? The Irish Farmers Association, IFA, met us yesterday. The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, ICMSA, and other farming organisations are telling us that the Minister is doing nothing for the farmers and is blatantly ignoring them in respect of the suckler herd, the low-cost funding and the fodder, which he said he would count in September. I do not know is the Minister able to count because a blind man could see there was no fodder in July or now.

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