Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)

We absolutely need to design this scheme and make sure the €30 million I have secured for budget 2026 is targeted at the farmers. I want to do this differently from the last scheme. The last scheme provided a much-needed €100 for every hectare that had seed in the ground, with no capping or conditionality around it. We can be more targeted with this €30 million, get it to those who need it the most and increase the value of it for those farmers as well. That scheme will buy us some time.

The broader issue is that I want to work with the farm organisations and industry to identify how we get that value-added piece. There are things we can do in respect of native grains in our feed. The Irish whiskey file needs to be examined in terms of how we use our native grains in that or what its requirements are. The use of quality assurance schemes in other sectors has been really successful. It is challenging, it is not simple and it requires leadership from stakeholders. I want to work with people on that. We will get certainty into the sector in the medium term and beyond by moving to a value added-piece and not being dependent on world market commodity prices, which is a very vulnerable position for our tillage sector to be in.

Finally, as to the efforts I am making on nitrates and other issues, land availability is a key issue, as is the price of rented land for tillage farmers. It is not an island or a silo. Irish agriculture is all interlinked. The success of how I get on with nitrates will determine and have an impact on the tillage sector as well.

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