Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. I accept that the Minister met the stakeholders in the past week and promised to reply to them next week on what he can do for the industry.

Maximum pressure must be put on the financial institutions to give extra overdraft facilities to help pig farmers with their cash flow. That will not be enough, however. A package must be provided for the sector. Feed costs are expected to rise by another €30 a tonne in the next month to six weeks. Unfortunately, energy costs still look to be moving in one direction only and labour costs are rising significantly as well. I hope pig markets will start to recover but it is going to be a very long haul to get back to a break-even situation. We must do what other EU countries are doing. A package must be put in place. I urge the Minister of State to provide for a certain period a direct subsidy for each pig slaughtered to try to reduce losses, help cash flow on farms and allow this vital industry to survive.

Swine flu must be monitored. We must increase security to ensure it does not enter the country. It has damaged export markets across Europe and there is no doubt it has exacerbated the problem. I urge the Minister of State to ensure resources are put in place to keep swine flu out of this country.

The Minister of State said the pig sector is resilient. I fully accept that, but any sector can only take so many sucker punches. I do not think the pig sector has ever been in the loss-making situation it is in currently. Small, medium and big pig producers are under significant pressure. There are only 300 pig farmers left, yet it is the third largest sector in the agrifood industry and is worth €1 billion to this country. It would be a disaster if, for want of short-term aid, we did not help the sector to survive this crisis, which is outside its control.

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