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

I thank the Deputy. As I mentioned earlier, I had a chance to meet with the six farming organisations yesterday and had a good discussion on this. While most sectors are seeing an increase in the prices farmers are getting, it is pretty much wiped out, if not entirely wiped out, by the increase of input costs, particularly when it comes to energy and fertiliser.

The Minister, Deputy McConalogue, was in Brussels this week discussing with his European partners and the Commission what we could do to provide farmers with additional financial assistance and he will work on that over the coming days. I cannot make any commitments in the House but suffice to say it is something the Minister has seized on.

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