Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Government is wondering why the food in the shops is dear but it is a fact that the farmers were taxed to such an extent last year that they had to raise the prices of their produce. Now, when people are complaining, it is the farmers who will be hit. They have already been asked to reduce the price of milk. It went down by 12 cent to 15 cent per litre in most co-operatives over the past three months. In talking about those co-operatives, we should note there was no regulation of the cost of fertiliser. The suppliers were not taken to task for what they were charging. Only for the suppliers in the north of Ireland bringing down the cost of fertiliser, it would not have come down here. That is God's gospel truth. There should be some regulation or some come-hither put on these fellas because they have made billions out of it. They are saying they bought the fertiliser dear last fall and must sell it off, yet they bought it the year before, in 2021, at a cheaper price and got a big price for it all last year.

Plastic for silage is €260 per roll but was €130 per roll. The rolls for the balers were €70 but are now €140. I hear an egg costs a dollar in California.

We will not be far behind them the way farmers' costs are going. Look at green diesel. It is still €1.20 per litre when it used to be 38 cent before the war and everything else the war is blamed for. It is now €1.20 and it has not come down proportionately as the price of petrol and white diesel have come down

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