Dáil debates

Wednesday, 28 September 2016

4:10 pm

Photo of Pat GallagherPat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I am informed that the Minister may arrive in two minutes. Deputies Anne Rabbitte and Michael Fitzmaurice have been waiting for a long time. I propose that we suspend proceedings if the Minister has not arrived in two minutes.

Photo of Anne RabbitteAnne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I ask that it be noted in the Official Report that the Minister did not arrive at the appropriate time and that Deputy Fitzmaurice and I were left waiting. It is 3.40 p.m. and all the other matters have been discussed.

Photo of Pat GallagherPat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister has arrived. Deputies are not happy because this Topical Issue should have been discussed 24 minutes ago. I understand there was some breakdown in communication. The Minister will have an opportunity to explain in a moment.

Photo of Michael FitzmauriceMichael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I thank the Minister for coming to the House; it is better late than never. As he will be aware from media reports and photographs, conditions in the west are ferocious for farmers trying to cut corn. The problem affects west Cork, from where the Minister comes, south County Wexford, and all the western counties from County Kerry as far as the Leas-Cheann Comhairle's area of County Donegal. Parts of counties Offaly and Longford are also affected. I visited one of the affected areas at the weekend with some Members of the European Parliament. It is possible to pull crops out of the ground by their roots. People involved in farming will understand me when I say the ground is "scalded". Moisture levels are so high that the gearboxes of combine harvesters are being broken when farmers try to transfer grain from the bins of the harvester to their trailers. Crops have also been destroyed.

I met members of the Irish Farmers Association last Saturday. The IFA is asking people to contact Teagasc to ensure we get the figures involved. Family farmers, especially in the west, are being wiped out. They have spent between €400 and €500 per acre on inputs. Some of them are renting land and they are experiencing total devastation. I have seen farmers crying because they do not know what will happen next. I have contacted MEPs about the issue. I ask the Minister to work with MEPs to ensure an Irish or European fund or a combination of the two is established to provide assistance. Something must be done for the affected farmers.

In some parts of County Leitrim, silage has not been cut yet. People will not believe this given the drought experienced in other areas. In addition, prices have fallen to an all-time low. I ask the Minister to extend the slurry season and establish immediately, as opposed to in six months' time, a fund for tillage farmers whose livelihoods are being lost.

Photo of Anne RabbitteAnne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister's absence for 24 minutes has been noted and recorded. While we can all run late, to say I am disappointed is to put it mildly.

The Fianna Fáil Party has called on the Government to establish a crisis fund for farmland badly damaged by recent weather. Such a fund would be one element in the effort to address problems being experienced by tillage farmers.

As Deputy Fitzmaurice noted, this is not a local issue affecting east County Galway but a problem that extends from counties Cork and Kerry north to County Donegal. Tillage farmers have been in crisis since 2013. Silence is condolence. The farmers in question are facing their banks and suppliers because crops have not been harvested and they face a cash crisis.

As Deputy Fitzmaurice very ably explained, crops cannot be salvaged or delivered to merchants. The price paid to farmers for their crops is substantially lower than the cost of production. The position is not sustainable. Without a dramatic increase in cereal prices, the problem is unlikely to be resolved. Will the Government support Fianna Fáil's proposal to establish an emergency fund? Will it establish a national tillage forum, as called for by the farmers' organisations, made up of industry representatives, farmers and other stakeholders, with the task of finding solutions for those who are in crisis?

The Minister is best positioned to address this problem. He visited the ploughing championships last week and has spoken to representatives of the various farming organisations. The tillage sector is one of the few sectors that believes its voice has not been heard. The beef and dairy sectors have been looked after but the tillage sector cannot access the €11 million in matching funding announced recently. What hope does it have?

Photo of Michael CreedMichael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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I apologise to the House for my delayed arrival. The Department experienced a technical glitch and we were unaware that this matter had been selected for discussion until 15 minutes ago.

I acknowledge the case made by Deputies Michael Fitzmaurice and Anne Rabbitte. I am aware of the issue they raise, which affects counties along the western seaboard from Malin Head to Mizen Head, although it is not confined to the west. I have met leaders of farming organisations both nationally and locally. I visited County Donegal on Monday where I met farm leaders from counties Donegal, Leitrim and Sligo who conveyed to me in a practical and an effective manner the reality on the ground for tillage farmers. The sector's difficulty with the weather has been compounded by low prices, which has been a problem for several successive years. Unfortunately, these problems have also coincided with a series of bumper harvests globally. Factors such as the lifting of the export ban on Russian agricultural products have resulted in a flood of produce on the market, which is driving down prices. In that context, I and my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Andrew Doyle, are acutely aware of the difficulties associated with this issue.

As a consequence, we decided some weeks back to convene on 6 October, in conjunction with all of the stakeholders in the tillage sector, a round table in my Department to discuss all of the issues associated with this matter. Rather than I being prescriptive in advance of that stakeholders' meeting, and we have done considerable work in the Department in looking at the issues around this matter, I did not want the forum to be the Department telling the industry what to do but to be a real round table, where we could hear and listen to the concerns of the industry.

Unfortunately, these are not just immediate difficulties associated with the weather but, in many respects, they are more structural than that. There are the challenges caused by multiple years of low prices compounded by this year's weather and I accept that, for many involved in the industry, this is a tipping point. As I said, the stakeholder round table will take place on 6 October.

I also appreciate the points made in respect of the cash crisis in the sector at present. Since 6 May I have put considerable emphasis on the pillar banks and how they are engaging with the farming community, not just on the tillage side but also in the dairy and beef sectors, given the difficulties all sectors are currently facing. I have asked the CEOs of the pillar banks to engage in forbearance in respect of the financial liabilities of the industry because, in the longer term, all of these sectors have a viable future. We got a good hearing from the pillar banks. I am also conscious of the associated issue of the cost of working finance to the industry generally and the tillage sector specifically.

In the context of the €500 million rescue package that was announced by the Commission, we are currently engaged in deliberations and consultations with farm organisations as how best to distribute that aid which, as Deputy Rabbitte said, is a scheme that currently excludes the tillage sector under the terms of the deal approved by the Commission. We are examining what alternatives we might be in a position to deliver. I am very conscious of the issue. As I said, I have convened a stakeholders' forum for 6 October and I hope something positive can emerge from that.

My apologies to the House for the delay. No slight was intended to either Deputy and I am sure they will take that at face value. I did not realise Deputy Rabbitte was watching the clock so critically, but I tried to contact both Deputies and managed to convey my apologies to Deputy Fitzmaurice.

4:20 pm

Photo of Michael FitzmauriceMichael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The apology is accepted. The one thing we have to realise is that while we can have a forum to talk about tillage prices and the grain price, which I welcome, those people who have cut their grain have something to give a merchant to pay for concentrates, fertiliser and seed they got during the year, but others have nothing to send in to the mill because they cannot cut it. This is a section of people who need to be sorted now. The price of grain is fine for those who have something. However, this problem has moved on from battling for a better price for grain to having no grain, or to having it in the ground but not being able to cut it, or not knowing what to do with it because it is rotting at the buds.

There is another side nobody is talking about. While we can get grain in from Europe if we are in trouble with supply, we cannot get straw because we will not bring straw in from France or elsewhere to throw under cattle because it would not make economic sense. I ask the Minister to deal with that section of people immediately. I agree with the Minister in regard to the forum, where we can look at the price of grain and the bigger problem. I also ask the Minister to address the slurry crisis because farmers are panicking.

Photo of Anne RabbitteAnne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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To follow on from Deputy Fitzmaurice, there is a crisis and people are panicking. It was welcome that the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, was in the House because the farmers' wives are panicking and they are worried about what they are about to head into for the winter, given they feel their husbands are bottling it all up. A few weeks ago on www.thatsfarming.com, Claire and John Daly from Kilconnell in east Galway put up a fabulous video on which Claire spoke from the heart. These are farmers who have inherited farms and there is a huge burden on them to deliver and to pay the bills. They are under pressure and the wives are worrying about the long winters the farmers are facing into. The whole mental health aspect and rural isolation is coming into play in a big way. That is why I welcome the fact the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, was present. This is what the family is worried about, and there is also a crisis in terms of family friendly farms. They are worried about the banks and the merchants but they are also worried about their health.

Photo of Michael CreedMichael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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To deal with the latter point, one of the points I made to the farm organisation leaders in the north west on Monday evening last was that there are things the State can do and we are open to exploring all of those issues. However, people would not thank me much if I went in with the prescription ahead of having met the people directly representing those at the coal face of the current difficulty.

One of the points I made to the farm organisations in respect of things the State and others can do was in respect of mental health issues. I appreciate that if anyone is facing financial difficulties in an industry that is primarily practised in isolation inside the farm gate, there is generally a reluctance - among men in particular - to put their hand up and say they are facing a particular difficulty. There is a role the farm organisation members can deliver, as an outreach opportunity, to their neighbours and friends in these difficulties. It does not take an enormous amount of local knowledge to be able to identify those in current difficulty. I accept this goes beyond the tillage sector and applies to some areas where cattle have been kept in, particularly on heavy ground where rainfall has been quite high for June, July and August. Farm organisations can do that well.

In my Department, through its knowledge transfer groups, which reach some 28,000 farmers, I have always made the point that one of the great values of those schemes is not just in respect of the knowledge they impart to the group, which is facilitated by Teagasc or private advisers, but also the social outlet they give. That type of assistance and outreach is something the State cannot replicate but it is critically important. I encourage the good neighbourliness that is alive and well in rural Ireland in this regard.

I take Deputy Fitzmaurice's point about the current difficulties. As I said, we agreed some weeks back with the farm organisations to convene this forum, and it was decided for 6 October because it would give an opportunity to have a full overview of the harvest situation by that date. I appreciate that, almost since the date we decided to convene this, the weather has been rather inclement, with the exception perhaps of the past 48 hours. Nonetheless, it will give us an opportunity to discuss the bigger picture in regard to the situation on the ground. Given the weather, I appreciate we are looking at sprouting, high moisture content and a difficulty in baling straw.

On the broader fodder issue, I do not think it is an issue of not having sufficient fodder nationally, as was the case a number of years ago, but that we do not have the fodder in the right geographical locations. This is something my Department has knowledge of in respect of its previous involvement. I want to go into that forum with an open mind, to talk to all of the parties and see where we go after that. I thank both Deputies for raising the issue.

Photo of Aindrias MoynihanAindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to be associated with the issues and concerns my colleagues have raised.

Photo of Pat GallagherPat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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You may wish to do so, but I cannot accommodate you.