Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak to this important motion. I speak not just as a Member of the Dáil but also as a farmer who has always championed the cause of agriculture and farmers in rural Ireland. It is an important sector which supports thousands of farmers in rural Ireland. I listened to Deputy Eugene Murphy speak about the demise of rural Ireland. It is unfortunate that we keep talking it down. Many good things are happening in rural Ireland, even though this is a difficult sector in which to be involved. It is important we realise the difficulties as it is easy to come up with motions and talk. Talk can be cheap, but it will not put an extra shilling in anybody's pocket. In the past fews weeks the committee which I chair, the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, decided to put together all of the stakeholders involved, including the farm organisations and Meat Industry Ireland, to try to find out what the issues were and where things could be developed to make sure there was a successful outcome. We have received 22 submissions so far. In the coming weeks we will invite stakeholders to make their presentations to the committee. We will then produce a report which will I hope highlight what the challenges and strengths are.

There are a couple of key points which I would like to make. The biggest challenge in the future will be presented by the CAP. In the past we engaged in very successful consultations and discussions on the CAP.

A total of €12.5 billion will be delivered in the present CAP. It is important that we maintain that budget in the future. In any discussion on beef and agriculture we have to be honest with ourselves. It is very easy to talk about what can and cannot be delivered. I hear talk about a €200 suckler cow premium and I do think the suckler cow needs to be protected but we have to have an honest discussion about where that money will come from. Is it going to be taken from pillar 1, which would be detrimental? Pillar 1 is important for farmers to have certainty about where their money is coming from in future. Will money be taken from pillar 1, with a payment coming out of that with a negative effect on farmers' payments in future? Or will it come out of pillar 2 which would be challenging as well? We have to have that honest discussion. It is important to do our best to maintain that budget. Much work has been done already in that regard to make sure that when the multiannual financial framework, MFF, is decided later this year we at least maintain that budget. I compliment the Minister on bringing as many European countries as possible on board. Hopefully over the next few months we can have more unanimity to make sure we can get the cuts that have been proposed reversed.

We have heard much talk about live exports this year. We have seen them increase for dairy calves in particular. We need to nurture and manage these because if we do not we will have difficulties. We can keep talking about live exports in a negative way which could have a very negative effect on what will happen in the future. We need to be careful. Exporters need to come together to make sure they have a common plan. It is disappointing that has not happened. There have been many moves made to try to get them together. I welcome everybody who is here tonight in the Gallery and I ask them why they are not working together. If I was a cynic I would suggest they have an agenda because it suits them to pay €5 or less for a calf in the marts. It suits certain people to keep that price down. We need to see more action to ensure live exporters work together in a constructive way.

On unfair trading practices, the decisions that have been made in Europe in recent weeks have been an important first step but we need to see more developments at local level in that regard. In these difficult times for agriculture we need more joined up thinking between all farm organisations working together with a common bond.

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