Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I was waiting for the word "fertiliser" to appear in the Minister's reply. Thankfully, we are there now. It is important to focus on what is happening in farming at the moment. Teagasc has detailed that there are major difficulties in the farming community at the moment. Only one third of farmers are currently making a living from farms. Another one third of farmers are only making a living because somebody in the household is working off the farm as a teacher or a nurse, or is working in a shop. A full one third of farmers in this State are making a loss or going into poverty or debt. Farmers are already in big trouble.

The costs of fertiliser, feed and fuel are going through the roof. The inflation farmers face today is the inflation everyone else will face tomorrow. We have a cost-of-living crisis and the cost of foodstuffs will increase as long as the input costs in farming are increasing. We are calling on the Government to subsidise the cost of fertiliser to farmers and directly reduce the cost to them.

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