Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

The trust of farmers in this Government is very low and I will tell the Minister of State why it is low. We have a supply chain in agriculture at the moment that usually consists of a farmer, maybe a factory, and a supermarket. Agriculture is enormously profitable in this country but all of that profit lands in the last two elements of that supply chain. The factories and supermarkets are making supernormal profits from produce that farmers are making, and the farmers are typically making barely above the cost of production. The prices are regularly pushed below the cost of production in beef, sheep, poultry and pigs. This Government stands over that system. We had Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Ministers literally say that it is unreasonable for farmers to expect a price above the cost of production. How can the farmers put trust in them in terms of making a living from farming in the future while that is happening and still see this train wreck coming down the line of the national being reduced? I am asking the Minister of State to take that off the table and to make sure farmers have proper funding and a proper income in the future.

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