Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for that reply and I acknowledge the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine is working under great pressure to get the supports in place. Farmers have the problem that the announcements have been made over recent months but the call for the funding and the application process is still not in place and this is the biggest concern they have. In looking forward to the end of the year, we need to ensure as a matter of urgency that we have a detailed inventory on what fertiliser, feedstocks and fuel are in this country.

Funding is required to support the growing of catch crops and the spreading of lime, which is a replacement fertiliser and is a great deal cheaper, but incentives are needed to do that. Excise duty on agri-diesel and liquid petroleum gas, LPG, for farm relief use should be brought into place. We should also reduce the VAT rate for agri-contractors. We have done that for the hospitality sector and it is important we also do it for the agri-sector. Agri-contractors do not get any credit from Revenue when they are carrying out their work and have to pay over the VAT when they get it. We therefore need to give that flexibility and margin these contractors need, in the interests of food production and of agriculture. This is an emergency we need to deal with now, not in September and October. We need to ensure money is injected into the farmers’ pockets now and not to leave it until the end of the year.

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