Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Comhghairdeas, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. You will be sadly missed as Cathaoirleach of the finance committee. I wish you well in your new role.

I welcome the opportunity to talk about the agrifood industry. It is a sector that is vital to sustaining rural communities. I again ask the Minister about the damage suffered by farmers during Storm Éowyn, particularly to their infrastructure such as sheds, and by fishermen who did not have insurance. I spoke to the Minister about the seafood sector and the oyster farmers, including one in my constituency who had a loss of €160,000. No fishing business can sustain that scale of loss. I ask the Minister to put those supports in place as quickly as possible. Some of the damage done cannot be just alleviated by TAMS or an existing scheme. We need to ensure agriculture is supported in that way.

I am glad the Minister referred to ACRES again today. The debacle continues. We should never set up a scheme within the Department unless the computer system there lends itself to payments being made in a timely way. This has not been done with ACRES. An awful lot of damage has been done to the relationship between farmers and the Department and the Government in terms of getting them on board with climate change.

I also ask the Minister to work on an all-island basis and develop a relationship with his counterpart in the North. It is very important to tackle agriculture in that way. The Taoiseach has specifically tasked each Department with doing North-South pieces of work that will be measured. What are the Minister's intentions on that? I encourage him to do that. I know our spokesperson and the rest of us will work with him to have an all-island approach to agriculture which can be very successful.

The uncertainty regarding farm funding in the North and the back-to-back systems with different regulatory and financial frameworks makes life very challenging for farmers on both sides of the Border. We believe decisions which affect our agri industry should be made on the island of Ireland and not by governments in Westminster. All the challenges we have outlined can be met on an all-island basis. Will the Minister pay particular heed to small family farms and take up our suggestion for a commission for family farms?

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