Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the motion from the Rural Independent Group focusing on this really important issue. Agriculture is currently in a crisis state in Ireland. I do not make that statement lightly. Every year farmers are leaving the land. The number of farmers is reducing each year according to Teagasc. The Minister may smile at that but it is a fact. According to Teagasc, one third of farmers are making a complete loss and many of those are going into debt and into poverty. One third of farmers are only making a living because someone on the farm is working in another job off the farm. Only one third of farmers are making a living from farming. Again, these figures are from Teagasc. It is an incredible situation.

One of the most important sectors in society, the sector that produces our food and that is the backbone of the rural community, is collapsing as a result of Government policies. If the family farm dies, so too does rural Ireland. Food lots and industrial farms may keep up production but they will not send children to the local school, buy in the local shops, play for the local football team or socialise in the local pub. If there are no farmers, there is no food, no rural Ireland and no future for us. We have a responsibility to ensure that we have a healthy, functional farming sector where families can make a living from their farms. The way to do that in the first instance is to address the issue of price. This is something that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have refused to do. The food industry is massive and is extremely profitable. The problem is that the profit is being taken by two elements of the supply chain, the supermarkets and factories. They have been allowed to do so by the vested interests who have been friends of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael for the last number of years. The farmers' share is being squeezed year after year by these two elements of the market. They are squeezing down farm prices and that has been facilitated by this Government.

Climate change is real and it does need to be tackled. However, the manner in which the Government is doing it is absolutely bananas. There is a proposal to cull the national herd by 200,000 cattle in the next year and a half. This will hurt. It will push many families off an income cliff. At the same time, the EU, with the support of the Irish Government, has signed up to a trade agreement with South America that will see huge quantities of beef imported into Europe from the likes of Brazil ,where deforestation, overgrazing and forest fires are a trademark of the farming sector. There is also the massive environmental cost of transporting that beef tens of thousands of miles. Brazilian beef imports to the EU are up by 27% so far this year. Approximately 24,500 tonnes of fresh beef have been imported into the EU from Brazil in the first five months of this year.

It is bonkers to lay waste to the Amazon and transport beef thousands of miles from Brazil in order to cull cattle in Ireland. According to the reply to a parliamentary question tabled by Deputy Nolan, nearly 70,000 tonnes of beef have been imported into Ireland since the start of the year. Ireland has an international competitive advantage for producing beef in the most environmentally friendly manner possible but now we are importing tens of thousands of tonnes of environmentally toxic beef instead. That is a crazy policy.

It is not just beef; we also see it in the context of peat. The Government is suppressing the production of peat. According to the reply to a parliamentary question tabled by Aontú, 813 tonnes of peat have been imported from Lithuania since the start of the year, while 4,100 tonnes have been imported from the Netherlands. This is climate hypocrisy. If you are a small beef farmer in Mayo, you can get stuffed but a green light and thumbs up will be given to beef farmers in Brazil. This has to stop.

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