Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome the opportunity to speak here tonight. For the people who are looking in from outside the Pale, I want to educate those who are looking on and to paint a picture of the position of members of the farming community and how much pressure they are under. We all know that farmers are getting very low prices for their beef, which is not covering the cost of production, especially not at this time. More importantly, we know that Irish beef is probably the finest quality beef in the world. Some countries may not agree with that but we have the grass production and we have everything going for us here. It is a product and we cannot expect beef farmers to sell their product below cost. We are aware that it is roughly working out at €3.75 to €3.85 per kilogram for this product and that surely is well below the cost of production. We also know there are more than 950,000 suckler cows on approximately 66,000 Irish farms, and suckler farmers continue to depend on the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, direct payments for their average income, which is just below €13,000 a year. More startling than this is that at present, approximately 13% of Irish beef is exported outside the EU, but with the current Brexit situation, what is more worrying is the fact that 50% of Irish beef is going to Britain. In the case of a no-deal Brexit, the British have threatened tariffs on Irish agrifood, which would spell absolute disaster for the sector. Again, a no-deal Brexit would be catastrophic for the Irish beef sector with World Trade Organisation tariffs of 70% on exports entering the UK, which in turn would result in an additional cost of nearly €780 million, while the price of beef produced by our farmers would fall to an estimated €2.50 per kilogram. This scenario is potentially a major disaster waiting to happen and many livelihoods will be lost and more and more families will be facing very tough times ahead.

Something that is being lost in this debate is the effect of what is happening on families. Farms could potentially shut down. People who have families will not have an income. People will struggle with houses, mortgages, debts and loans. There is obviously a knock-on effect there where that feeds into family life. There is the potential for marriage break-ups and it goes on and on. Mental health problems are also possible due to the stress and strain. Another problem is that many of our young farmers will possibly emigrate. One thing that could help struggling farmers at present is the Brexit loan scheme for farmers, fishermen and food businesses. Members mentioned that it was announced in October 2017 and we found out in the past hour or two that this proposal has been approved by the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Humphreys, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, and the Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, which I welcome. That is a positive start but maybe it is a little too late.

Another matter I want to address is what we should be doing about working toward a fully funded and fair CAP post 2020. We need to safeguard these direct payments and this in turn would support all low-income farmers, including beef farmers. It also would protect the beef sector and suckler farmers in all upcoming European Union trade deals, which is something to which we must look forward in our forward planning. I urge our Commissioner in Brussels to get the finger out, open his mouth and start shouting on behalf of the farmers of this country. It is another heartbeat here, we have a fabulous reputation and it was not built willy-nilly; it was built on fact, on production and on what the farmers produce in this country. It does not matter if it is poultry or whatever it is. I ask the Government to get real on this. I know the Government is not opposing this motion tonight but we have had many motions passed in here where nothing has happened. As we also have had all-party agreements on certain matters where we can push through, there is political will.

I want to touch briefly on how farmers have lost faith in the quality pricing system. My information is that the uptake for producer organisations in the beef sector has resulted in zero registrations with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine since the legal basis was given to producer organisations in 2016. That is not a very positive outlook. Farmers have been losing faith and we do not want them to lose faith again. This time they are probably losing faith in the Government and I ask the Government not to let them down and to do the right thing here because as I said, there are massive implications, not only within the beef sector but within the farming sector as a whole. A Member opposite mentioned rural communities a while ago. Let us be honest, where there is an action there is an instant reaction. If we start losing families and rural farms, and this is not anti-rural, the knock-on effect of that is that local businesses are affected, schools are affected and it goes on and on. I appeal to the Government to state it is in support of the motion. I call on the Government to get behind it. Let us all do the right thing and support the farmers of this country.

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