Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise again with the Taoiseach the savage increase in the cost of fertiliser. I did this before back on 3 November last. I want to know what the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Taoiseach and the Government have done to get the price of fertiliser down to an acceptable or reasonable price for small suckler farmers in south Kerry and for dairy producers and tillage farmers in mid and north Kerry. This time last year urea was €330 a tonne. It is now €930 a tonne. Nitrogen was €240 and is now €690. Pasture sward was €350 and is now €700; and 18:6:12 is now €790. One farmer had a bill of €7,000 last year, but it will be €17,000 this year. Farmers will go broke and fast, especially small farmers in Kerry.

The main driver of the increased fertiliser costs in the EU and here is the massive increase in natural gas prices due to the green agenda to decarbonise electricity generation and also the EU policy to protect EU fertiliser producers by imposing levies on Russia and other countries supplying fertiliser into the EU. I am calling on the Taoiseach to intervene with the EU and get these levies abolished. Last Wednesday I attended the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine and with others asked Fabien Santini of the EU Agriculture Commission what could be done to help our farmers in Kerry and around the country. From his reply we understand that each member state will be allowed to provide unique farmer support through relaxation of the state aid framework. This facility is only allowed until June this year. At that meeting, the Green Party Deputy Brian Leddin outlined his pleasure at the increased cost of fertiliser to force crippled farmers into organising farms.

Is the Green Party preventing the Taoiseach from helping the farmers? If the Taoiseach cannot do something about fertiliser costs, in order to survive farmers will have to increase the cost of their products to the consumer. Otherwise, they will go bust. We all have been told recently that the cost of groceries to the housewife has gone up by €780 in the last year. This figure will go up by double or more in the coming year because of the farmers' increased cost of production. Are housewives and consumers prepared to pay the extra cost of food as a result of the badly thought-out policies of the Green Party and this Government?

This will also impact on the availability of fodder and increase the price of it. Farmers have been wrongly attacked and vilified by the Green Party and many others in this Chamber and outside of here, and are being blamed for everything even though they produce good healthy food of the highest quality while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, abiding by all the Department and European regulations.

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