Dáil debates

Wednesday, 17 February 2021

Covid-19 (Agriculture, Food and the Marine): Statements

 

3:50 pm

Photo of Matt ShanahanMatt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to bring up three sectoral issues which fall under the Minister's agriculture portfolio and for which I believe immediate and clear action can alleviate significant economic and social hardship.

First, I raise our suckler beef and beef finishing industry. Beef prices are on the floor and beef finishers are facing significant losses, and in some cases ruin, in bringing their beef product to market, which they must do after all. Farmers continue to engage in supplemental feeding and husbandry to deliver the premium grass-fed product that is the bulwark of our national beef exports and indigenous consumption. Farmers are facing ruinous sales prices which leave them in no position to pay their suppliers now or to meet their own family income needs. Despite national promotion of Irish beef, the next generation of beef farmers will not exist in this country because beef finishing as an agricultural activity is dying on its feet because of continuous producer price issues. It is worth noting that like-for-like comparison of beef prices with UK factory prices sees Irish farmers receiving between €200 and €300 less per animal. This situation cannot be allowed to continue. I ask the Minister's Department to recognise the present challenges facing the Irish beef sector and to introduce, as soon as possible, a new beef exceptional aid measure, BEAM, scheme to alleviate the hardships being imposed on the impacted farm families and to recognise the need to support this indigenous manufacturing sector.

The second issue is the nursery training ground of our national hunt and thoroughbred racing industry, namely, the point-to-point sector. Point-to-point activity has been closed for many months despite our national hunt and flat racing continuing successfully during the pandemic. Point-to-point racing is vital to the national horse racing industry of which it is a significant component. It provided more than €45 million in export sales to the UK in 2019. It supports veterinarian, farrier, horse transport and feedstock jobs in rural counties and with 66 courses around the country, point-to-point is the form of horse racing that most touches rural Irish society. It is here also that the Irish horse racing financial model filters through to rural Ireland. Point-to-point racing is inherently safe given it can be conducted with fewer than 40 people occupying a 60 acre space outdoors where all the protocols implemented on our racing tracks are fully in place and overseen by the same two governing bodies that control national racing. The point-to-point season finishes at the end of May and I ask the Minister to please look immediately at allowing this safe activity to recommence, to allow the trade continue and to safeguard livelihoods and our hard-won horse racing industry which delivers wider benefits to so many.

The third and final issue I raise is our forestry sector. It is a hugely important indigenous industry but is also required to mitigate future national climate penalties. The legislation passed in recent months, which we supported, has improved the output of licences but is not meeting the needs for new planting applications. Timeframes for felling and new planting can be up to two years to process and the system is placing huge bureaucracy on farmers who, at the end of the day, are simply trying to harvest a cash crop at a future point. The requirements for ecological and Natura surveys are becoming onerous and costly and will prove a deterrent to new applications. In addition, the throughput of applications per annum through departmental offices is estimated at 4,500, yet new felling, planting and roadway applications are deemed to be running at 6,000 per annum. It is only a matter of time before the system yet again becomes completely logjammed which will once more necessitate significant importation of softwood timbers and will ensure that Ireland completely misses our future afforestation targets, thereby incurring climate penalties in future. We can be self-sufficient in this industry but bureaucracy is restricting our national ability to perform in this sector.

I ask the Minster address these three issues and I hope he can do so as soon as possible.

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