Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will not knock the initiatives introduced by the Minister as they are all welcome but there are a significant number of farmers who cannot get access to the credit they need. That is the factual situation. Many farmers have a very significant tax bill at the end of this month and the cashflow is just not there to do it so there is a problem.

Another issue in the budget was the lack of any attempt to address volatility and swings in farmers' income, the significant problem caused by tax bills in a year when income is down very substantially and the fact that farmers must pay tax for a previous year where income was far higher. There was grave disappointment on the part of all the farming organisations that there was no attempt in the budget to address those problems, which are significant problems for farm families involving as they do volatility and high income tax bills that can arise in a year such as this when incomes and costs are running very high. There is a problem with regard to short-term credit and volatility and, unfortunately, the budget did not deliver on either of these two key issues. There are farmers who cannot get access to credit and they are the ones who need it most.

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