Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Déanaim comhghairdeas leis an Aire agus an Aire Stáit. Go n-eirí libh. I hope they do well in the posts. They have a lot of responsibility to take on.

It is important the Government take a firm position on the Mercosur deal. There is the weight of the Germans, the German car industry and other more industrialised countries on the other side. It is important the Irish representatives at European meetings take a strong position and combine with those countries that have a strong agricultural base, like France. To be shipping beef from one side of the world to the other when we are talking about reducing carbon emissions is absolute lunacy. Why clear rainforests to rear beef when there is space in this country to rear beef more sustainably on green grass in fields with ditches around them and hedgerows? It is a no-brainer. We have to protect that. It is important we continue to take a strong position on Mercosur.

Organic farming is a niche area but needs to move beyond that. Around 2% of our farming is organic. Compare that with some of our European counterparts. In Austria 36% of sheep are grazed on organic pastures, while 22% of dairy cows in Austria are grazed on organic pastures and 18% in Sweden. It can be done. They are fairly similar countries with fairly similar climates. That needs to be taken into consideration. The scheme has reopened, as I understand. We need to boost that and have a larger share of our produce coming from organic.

The Minister does not need me to tell him the horticultural sector is in danger at the moment. It is not big in my neck of the woods - County Laois - but it is really important for sustainability and other good reasons that we try to enlarge the sector.

The other area I want to mention briefly is the sugar beet industry. You may say it has gone and the Minister, Deputy Heydon, will be aware of the efforts to restart it, particularly close to where he and I live, on the borders of the three counties of Carlow, Kildare and Laois. It was a huge loss to Laois, Carlow and other counties.

It may be gone but we should not give up on it. It is a great sustainable crop that is brilliant for soil nutrition and soil quality. As Teagasc and the farmers will tell you, that is lost. Soil quality is not as good now where you grow grain year after year. If you have beet this year, you will know that whatever you sow next year in the same ground will prosper in it. Anybody connected with the farming sector knows it. It needs to have a second product coming out of it; sugar alone will not do it. I understand the economics of that but bioethanol and other components can be extracted from it as well. It is important to not give up on it.

As for flour, we have gone from being able to sustain ourselves with flour. I discovered, as did a lot of the population, that when the beast from the east came a few years ago, we almost ran out of flour in three days. We cannot have a situation like that in an island economy. While I understand we have a wettish climate, the eastern side of the country is well fit to grow wheat. There needs to be a re-emphasis on that and about the tillage sector overall.

We have beef and dairy, which are thriving at the moment. There is a view that it is maybe thriving too much. My concern is that we are overreliant on it and while it is great that it is there, there is a vulnerability there. We need to take a stronger look at the tillage sector. During the Minister's term as Minister for both agriculture and food, he should be cognisant of that and should take that into consideration.

We need to protect the suckler cow scheme, which is important, including in County Laois. There has been a commitment to improve the supports and I hope that will continue for both the quality of the herd and some of the reasons mentioned already, such as the sustainability of the family farm.

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