Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet the six main farming organisations in Government Buildings. We organised the meeting as a regular round table to talk about Brexit, Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, reform and climate action. As the Deputy can imagine and as is often the case, events overtake us. Most of the meeting was about Ukraine, the cost of inputs, the rising cost of fuel and fertiliser, and how that will impact food prices and farm incomes. This afternoon at 2 o'clock the Taoiseach will chair a special meeting of Ministers. We will consider three matters. First is the humanitarian response and how we can assist Ukrainians who come to Ireland and more importantly how can we assist the millions of Ukrainians who will not come to Ireland but will be refugees in other parts of Europe. Second is sanctions and the political response. Can we do more to show our support for Ukraine and our opposition to the Russian Federation and Belarus? Third is how we can deal with the economic impact of another economic shock so soon after the last one. How will we help households with rising bills? How can we help farmers with rising input costs? How can we help the business sector? There is only so much that Government can do, but there are things that Government can do. We will consider them this afternoon and I look forward to reporting back to the Dáil next week if I have the opportunity.

I got a really good note from Minister of State, Senator Hackett, on forestry licensing the other day. After years of frustration - I know the frustration is by no means gone - there is real evidence of an uptick in the number of licences being granted. I might send that note on to the Deputy because for the first time in a very long time I had some hope that we were making some sort of progress.

See this speech in context