Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Many farmers in this country are facing a wipeout this year due to the astronomical increases in fertiliser costs. A farmer who paid €300 last year for a tonne, or 20 bags, of the most popular type of fertiliser will pay €900 this year. This is an astonishing increase that will leave many farmers with a nightmare decision as to how they will pay for fertiliser this year. Experts estimate that a farmer with 100 ha will end up paying €40,000 more for fertiliser this year. In fairness, most farmers I know would not own 100 ha but most would own 50 ha so their fertiliser costs will increase by €20,000. A typical mid-sized farmer feeding 120 tonnes of rations and using 30 tonnes of fertiliser per year will see his or her fertiliser bill rising by €23,400 a year. No farmer can take this hit. They will simply go out of business, owing co-ops throughout the country tens of thousands of euro.

The Government is well aware of this crisis. In October, the Taoiseach was told on the floor of the Dáil by the Rural Independent Group that this fertiliser crisis was imminent and that the Government needed to do something about it immediately. In November, another member of our group told the Taoiseach to take action immediately. In the past couple of weeks, we have been pleading with the Government to take action but we have heard nothing to date about what the Government have done. The week before last at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, I challenged Mr. Fabien Santini of the EU agriculture committee on solutions to this crisis. He said that the rising price of gas was mainly to blame, as well as the fact that import levies are adding to the crisis. However, he also stated that the government of each member state has been given latitude to provide unique farmer support through the relaxation of the state aid framework. He further stated that this will only be available until June 2022 and would allow for financial aid.

Shamefully, at that same meeting, the Green Party member of the committee emphatically expressed that he wanted to broaden the issue to ask why we are so dependent on fertiliser. He said, "The reality is that these artificial fertilisers are having a devastating effect locally". He further stated:

In addition, using these inputs allows us to grow more grass and have higher stocking rates in our farms. That has a knock-on increase on the methane that we produce. All in all, it seems to make sense to drive the organic angle ...

My worry is that such deranged thinking is feeding into the mindset of the Government and is detrimental to the food chain in this country. It is astonishing that our Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael-Green Party Government has so far failed to use the tools referred to by Mr. Santini to assist our crisis-struck farmers. It is shameful that our Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has completely failed to take action despite the crisis we are in. Irish farming families need a strong Government at this time and a subsidy is immediately needed for farmers who purchase fertilisers, perhaps one similar to the subsidy given to farmers during the fodder crisis some years back. Maybe I am wrong and maybe the Greens are not wagging the tail of this Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Government. If not, what has the Government discussed at Cabinet since the Taoiseach was told of this fertiliser cost crisis, which affects tens of thousands of farmers, in October and November? What solutions has the Government put in place to save many farmers from wipe-out this year?

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