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

Farmers are on the cusp of losing farms, due to the financially crippling fertiliser costs, which are burying local farmers in debt, mainly due to crazy, green policies. The average price of fertiliser a year ago was a costly high of €300 per tonne. Today’s prices have skyrocketed, with CAN fertiliser costing Irish farmers more than €600 per tonne and urea costing more than €900 per tonne. Consequently, for a typical, mid-sized farmer feeding 120 tonnes of ration and using 30 tonnes of fertiliser per year, the rise in input costs will add €23,400 in additional costs.

The main driver for increased fertiliser costs in Europe are the record natural gas prices, due to the Government’s agenda to decarbonise electricity generation through over-zealous and half-baked green policies. The EU's policies to protect the Continent’s fertiliser producers by imposing import levies on fertilisers are also having an impact.

Just a few weeks ago at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, I challenged Mr. Fabien Santini from the European Commission's Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development on the origins of, and response to, the crisis. He stated that each member state government has been given the latitude to provide unique farmer support through a relaxation of the state aid framework. This mechanism is currently only available until 2022. I cannot understand for the life of me why this Government has not used this mechanism, which Mr. Santini told us is available.

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