Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I would point out that close to €10 billion in total between European Union and Exchequer funding will support over 120,000 farm families over the next Common Agricultural Policy period between 2023 and 2027. The Minister, Deputy McConalogue has worked very hard on behalf of Irish farmers to get the best package possible in the context of the common agricultural strategy over the next number of years. In addition to that, close to €4.5 billion has been paid out to farmers since June 2020 through various schemes like the basic payment scheme, the areas of natural constraint scheme, the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme and the beef scheme. Average family farm income increased during 2020 and again in 2021 for the third year in a row, reflecting good output prices.

However, the Deputy is correct when he says that there is very significant concern on the cost side in 2022 for farmers in the context of what he has outlined, the price of fertiliser. The high price of natural gas, which is a key ingredient in fertiliser production as the Deputy knows, has caused very significant disruption in production in the international fertiliser industry. This is a global problem and issue. Large increases in energy prices are a Europe-wide phenomenon. It is a combination of global demand for gas as economies recover from Covid as well as lower flows of gas from Russia. Given that Europe receives a large amount of its gas supply from Russia, the geopolitical impact of the current build-up of Russian troops at the Ukrainian border may even drive gas and fertiliser prices up further.

The Minister, Deputy McConalogue, has raised these rising costs at the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting.

He has called on the European Union Commission to consider all options to ease the pressure on farmers at this time. That includes monitoring the evolution of markets linked to agricultural impacts, particularly in relation to fertilisers; the question, which I think the Deputy raised, as to whether the imposition of anti-dumping duties on fertiliser imports continues to be appropriate, given the current crisis; and for this matter to be examined as a priority. The Minister has raised that with the Commission.

This is nothing to do with national politics or the particular political perspectives that parties may have in respect of climate and so on, but side by side with that, the Minister is working on giving supports through a number of measures, including soil fertility, greater use of clover and multispecies swards, to reduce dependency on chemical nitrogen fertiliser. That work is under way. That will help but the bigger issue is to try to deal with the current crisis in gas price increases that is feeding into the fertiliser problem. It is a very significant issue. I know that the Minister has asked Teagasc to develop a roadmap for assisting farmers in the short term as well as offering some long-term solutions.

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