Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I absolutely agree with Deputy Healy-Rae. He is right that the price of fertiliser has gone through the roof. It is not just the price. There are restrictions on availability given what is happening with Russia. My understanding is that this summer we may have a 30% reduction in the amount of nitrate fertiliser applied. How this is going to work will be critical. The Deputy is also right that the application of lime, especially combined with really good soil analysis, water and grasslands management, and moving towards a mixed sward system could give us a very productive grazing system with a much-reduced cost and a better environmental output. Lime could have a critical role in that, so I will ask my colleague, the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, to look at taking up the suggestion. I believe it is a good one.

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