Dáil debates

Thursday, 30 March 2023

1:20 pm

Photo of Charlie McConalogueCharlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I am grateful for the opportunity to discuss this important issue and cover a sector that, as someone who grew up on a sheep and suckler farm in County Donegal, is close to my heart. This sector is an important part of our agricultural industry and a critical component of our multibillion euro export sector.

Ireland and the sheep sector are intrinsically linked, with sheep being part of our cultural identity. Sheep have become part of the image of Ireland, adorning the postcards of tourists sent to family and friends telling of their time in the country. Most importantly, sheep are a large part of farm incomes.

Photo of Catherine ConnollyCatherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Gabh mo leithscéal, but does the Minister have other copies of his speech?

Photo of Charlie McConalogueCharlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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They are on the way over.

Photo of Catherine ConnollyCatherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Go raibh maith agat. Members are anxious to have them.

Photo of Charlie McConalogueCharlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Whether someone is a part-time or full-time farmer, and regardless of size or scale, no one can question the commitment and hard work of sheep farmers across the country. From lambing ewes in the middle of a stormy night to keeping the flock healthy and well over the spring and summer, it is hard work. In some instances, it is a labour of love. Overall, though, the sheep sector is a rewarding one and the demand for Irish product in many key markets shows the importance of what we do at farm level.

A viable sheep sector is an integral element of a balanced regional economy. I saw this at first hand when growing up on my farm back home. Be it upland or lowland, I am committed to ensuring that our sheep sector is protected now and for generations to come.

The maintenance of current hill and mountain landscapes is important from an environmental sustainability perspective as well as from rural community and tourism perspectives. Hill and mountain sheep farming contributes significantly to maintaining high-quality habitats and species-rich biodiversity. Food Vision 2030 is our shared strategy for the sustainable development of the agrifood sector to 2030. Farmers are at the heart of the strategy. The economic viability of our sheep farmers is crucial, not only in terms of their ability to earn a decent livelihood and return on their hard work and endeavours, but also in helping to deliver on environmental and social sustainability. With that in mind, the Food Vision 2030 strategy focuses on the areas that offer the best tools for improving economic viability and resilience - areas that are within the control of primary producers themselves - but also on policies, approaches and technologies that they and others in the agrifood chain can implement to improve their overall economic standing. I have established the Food Vision 2030 beef and sheep group, which plays a critical role in plotting a future for the sector.

Ireland exported sheep meat to nearly 40 markets last year, which is a mark of the world-class product produced on our farms. I recognise that margins in sheep farming have been under pressure as a result of increased input costs as well as lower prices than the record levels achieved in recent years. As we all know, market prices are a commercial matter and not set by the Government, and the Government does not have a role in determining commodity prices in the sheep sector or other sectors. However, I am heartened to see the live and finished trades showing improvements in recent weeks in terms of the prices available and I am monitoring the market closely.

Consumption levels are an issue. Approximately 15% of the lamb produced in Ireland is consumed domestically, with the balance being exported. I have requested Bord Bia to intensify its marketing and promotion of Irish lamb this year through its activities in domestic and export markets. Bord Bia has just finished an additional lamb campaign in the domestic market, which focused in particular on attracting younger consumers to eating lamb. Television advertising campaigns will also run in June and from September to October to coincide with peak supply months. However, we must continue to look to the world, with sheep export markets remaining critical.

Over the past decade, the Department has agreed bilateral sheep meat export certificates for many international markets, most recently with Japan in 2019 and the US in 2022. We are discussing with the US the requirements for approving factories for lamb exports following the announcement of agreed certification arrangements during my trade mission there last year. I will be travelling to China to boost promotional activity for Irish agrifood exports. I hope this visit will also provide an opportunity to engage with the Chinese authorities on their specific requirements for sheep meat imports.

Teagasc estimates that, although output increased by 7% in 2022, the increase in output and price was not sufficient to negate an increase in input costs of approximately 40%. The rapid escalation of production costs in 2022 dramatically reduced the margins per hectare and per ewe. Over the course of the past year, I have moved to support our livestock farmers in dealing with increased costs through the €56 million fodder incentive scheme, which Deputies will know provides up to €1,000 per farm family. I ran this scheme last year and it is in place again this year. I also supported the grant aiding of multispecies swards and red clover to help reduce our reliance on chemical fertilisers and further reduce bills. I recently launched the innovative €8 million national liming programme, which is aimed at all farmers who want to reduce their fertiliser bills.

Teagasc forecasts that the 2023 income outlook on predominantly sheep enterprises will be slightly below 2022 levels at €19,500 versus €19,900. Importantly, this forecast for sheep farm incomes does not take account of the higher payment rates under many schemes that I have introduced under the new Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, strategic plan, for example, the organics scheme and the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, which are likely to deliver higher total direct payments to many sheep farmers this year. I have provided significant support to the sector under the new CAP, both through a new targeted scheme for sheep farmers - the sheep improvement scheme - and through the broad range of schemes in the CAP strategic plan. More than 19,000 applications have been submitted to the new sheep improvement scheme. It replaces the previous sheep welfare scheme and has a payment rate of €12 per ewe. It is good to see its strong uptake among farmers.

CAP will provide almost €10 billion in supports for farm families over the period to 2027. Sheep farmers are eligible for several other schemes in addition to the sheep improvement scheme, including ACRES and the organics scheme, which are particularly suited to sheep enterprises or mixed beef and sheep enterprises. I have secured places for all 46,000 farmers in ACRES, which I am certain will benefit many farmers. The new organic farming scheme, with a 500% increase in the budget, will provide for a significant increase in payments to farmers, with sheep farmers able to receive €300 per hectare in years one and two and €250 per hectare in years three to five when fully converted. This is in addition to the annual participation payment. Some €2,000 will be paid to organic farm scheme participants in the first year of conversion and €1,400 for every subsequent year of the contract.

Regarding wool production, the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, and I have allocated funding for the establishment of a stakeholder forum to develop and promote the industry. An independent review of the wool market was published in July. It contained multiple findings and recommendations, including potential funding streams and market opportunities for wool, and identified areas for further research and development. One of the main recommendations concerned the establishment of an industry-led wool council, which would develop and promote Irish wool domestically and internationally.

To support this, I have made a funding commitment of €30,000 towards the initial set-up costs of the wool council. The first meeting of parties, including farm bodies, wool merchants and industry representatives that are interested in forming the wool council, took place on 15 December 2022. Wool is a sustainable, durable and versatile product and I want the wool council to plot a path to help drive further added value for wool.

I cannot underestimate the importance of the sheep sector to our agriculture sector. It is also a sector that is particularly close to my heart and is one the Government has made a massive commitment to. It is strategically important to our overall agrifood sector. Money that enters the farm gate of our sheep farms is spent locally. That is critical. As outlined, I have put in place significant funding across a range of supports and measures which will benefit the sheep sector now and into the future. I have asked my officials to closely assess the budget and monitor developments, particularly over the coming period, to see if there is a seasonal upturn in price associated with religious festivals, which often happens.

Since this debate was first requested there has been an upturn in the sheep price from €6.10 per kilogram at the start of March to more than €6.70, which is widely quoted now. I spoke to a farmer at home in Donegal who sold lambs last weekend and achieved a price of €6.85, which would be a €15 increase on a 20 kg carcass. That has happened in the last three or four weeks since we first scheduled this debate. That is positive and I hope we will see more of that. I will work closely with Bord Bia to ensure it is supported in driving on and finding new market outlets to support the sector. The new spring lamb trade has opened and we have started to see them come through in the last week or two. We are seeing prices starting at €7.40 for spring lambs. It is something I will monitor very closely.

I am doing all I can to underpin this sector and provide a platform for it with regard to the Common Agricultural Policy, particularly given the very significant decision recently on ACRES. We need to make sure that is available to every sheep farmer who applied. That will potentially deliver between €5,000 and €7,000 for those in the general programme and there will be an opportunity to avail of a higher payment for those in the co-operation project areas as well. I welcome the opportunity to discuss this important sector and look forward to hearing the contributions of Deputies. I will have to leave shortly before the end of the debate because I have a prearranged commitment in Donegal that I have to go to but I will be paying full attention to all the contributions made by all Deputies and fully reflecting on all the comments they make today, given the importance of this sector and this debate.

1:30 pm

Photo of Martin HeydonMartin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I am delighted to have the opportunity to discuss the important area of the sheep sector. It is something that has been raised on the floor of this House by colleagues from all sides, in fairness, as we all recognise the challenges faced by our sheep farmers this winter and into this spring. I have spoken previously about the significant contribution sheep farming makes to rural Ireland. There are more than 40,000 farmers involved in the sector, producing high-quality lamb which underpinned almost half a billion euro of exports in 2022.

The best demonstration of the sheep sector’s importance is not in farm census or export figures but in our rural towns and villages. Whether it is mart day in Kenmare in Kerry, Tullow in Carlow or Ballinrobe in Mayo, these towns and more like them benefit hugely from a vibrant sheep sector. The money spent by farmers stays in the local economy and generates multiples in economic activity. That is why grass-based production of sheep, along with beef and dairy, will continue to be the bedrock of Irish agrifood output. They are the optimum systems for our climate and land type and support thousands of livelihoods while preserving a unique landscape.

Beef and sheep farming account for most farm enterprises and they are at the heart of social and economic sustainability in rural areas where other economic activity can often be limited. They are also the systems most reliant on direct payments and where economic viability is very often challenging. That is why we have a strong suite of supports for these farms, as the Minister outlined, and why we place a large emphasis on driving improvements in our lowland and upland flocks through investment in research and advisory services. The Minister also outlined this Government’s commitment to supporting the sheep sector through this particularly difficult period, which is due in no small part to the input costs for farmers being so high. We want to continue to support farmers through all these difficulties in the spring, when there are also other challenges like the poor return and low prices for wool.

In the medium to long term, we need a sector that is an attractive proposition for young people. I do not underestimate the scale of that challenge. As Minister of State with responsibility for farm safety, I see the risks associated with an ageing farm population. While sheep farmers account for a low proportion of fatal farm safety incidents, comprising 5% of all incidents, they account for more than a third of non-fatal incidents, which is more than any other farm enterprise. More than half these incidents involved livestock, at 52%, with a further one third or 32% relating to trips and falls. As any sheep farmer will tell you, it is a labour-intensive job and help can often be difficult to source as it is only available at certain times of the week or year.

If we want to maintain flock numbers, we need continued targeting of farm income supports while increasing the return from the marketplace. What every farmer wants is a fair price for their product. We play our part in that by delivering more export opportunities for sheep farmers, like we did in Japan in 2019, as referenced by the Minister, and in the US in 2022, where we have some more work to do in developing that market. The basis on which we grow the value of our sheepmeat exports, like we have done in each of the last three years, is by continuing to promote Irish grass-fed lamb as a premium product nationally and internationally and targeting high potential markets like continental Europe. Our success in gaining and retaining access to international markets is directly related to our excellent reputation for food safety and a high-quality product. That, of course, is one side of the equation. The other is ensuring these gains are passed back to the farm gate.

Alongside creating the office of openness and transparency, we are also well advanced in drafting legislation to give legal recognition to sheep producer organisations, which can strengthen farmers’ positions in the supply chain. That will bring benefits around collectively negotiating on price and inputs as well as payments of €3,000 to cover set-up costs and €30,000 over three years to help cover administration fees. We hope to finalise legislation around this in the second quarter of this year while the early-stage support for producer organisations is expected to be launched in the third quarter of this year. I reaffirm this Government’s support for the sheep sector. We will continue to work with farmers and their representatives in the time ahead.

Photo of Matt CarthyMatt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I am disappointed and incredibly surprised that the Minister and Minister of State have spent the guts of 20 minutes outlining that there are no new supports to be provided. When I raised this issue as a priority oral question at the beginning of March, the response stated that the Minister had directed officials in the Department to examine potential supports. So big was that as an announcement by the Minister that he gave the same information in response to theIrish Farmer's Journal the day before the questions were to be answered. Here we are at the end of the month after being told at the beginning that officials had been directed to examine potential supports. What are officials being directed to do now, as per the Minister's opening statement? They are now being asked to continue to closely monitor developments. We are further away from what sheep farmers need, which is direct new supports, than we were a month ago.

Sheep farmers, like those in many sectors, have weathered an unprecedented confluence of challenges over the past couple of years. We have had the pandemic, Brexit, the utter collapse in wool prices and the input cost rises that have been well spoken about. The truth is that the more than 40,000 sheep farmers in this State are under incredible pressure. The Minister recognised the good work and hard work of sheep farmers but we also have to recognise the crucial economic difference these farmers make in delivering more than €476 million in exports alone. They are driving economic activity in parts of the country that otherwise would not see it. They are doing this against the backdrop of Governments that have not acted accordingly to provide the support they need.

One of the arguments often lost in the debate is just how important and crucial the sheep farmers are to our sustainability goals. As it stands, the majority of sheep farmers are very close to being organic farmers. The reason farmers do not move towards converting, as the Minster is encouraging them to do, is that there is no market yet for organic sheep product, at the level that would be required to encourage farmers to go into that sector knowing there would be a financial benefit for them in doing so. That is because the Minister has continuously failed to act on Sinn Féin's call for Bord Bia to have a ring-fenced budget for organic produce. It is simply not good enough to continuously say the Government has no role in the market; that the agrifood regulator, for example, should have no role in competition; or that the sheep sector cannot meet the high test, as described by the Minister, required for European supports.

Farmers understand that economic viability and that the swings of the market can have impacts better than anybody. That is why sheep farmers always set money aside during good times to carry them through to the bad times. They try to match and prepare for the economic cycle in particular sectors and invest when the opportunity arises. However, they cannot take punch after punch without assistance from Government. Just as farmers put money aside in good times to prepare for the bad, Governments must also invest to foster an agrifood system that has in-built resilience to help support it absorb the blows during more economically challenging times. The truth and the problem is that the Minister has not invested sufficiently in our sheep farmers. The sheep welfare scheme, which provides an additional €12 per eligible ewe, does not even cover the level of inflation that has been faced by farmers. What is required is a scheme to the tune of €20 per ewe, such as that which Sinn Féin has advocated.

As has been noted, wool prices have been falling through the floor for years. Reports have suggested that farmers are willing to give their wool away because the price they have been receiving does not even cover the cost of a sheer. This was once a very valuable commodity from which farmers derived an income. That is an income that has been taken away from them. Wool is now considered - unbelievably - to be virtually a waste product; something to be disposed of. This does not have to be the case. As the Minister will know, Sinn Féin proposed an emergency package for the wool sector to cover the cost of sheering. Unfortunately, Government kept responding that there was a wool feasibility study emerging and said that no assistance would be provided in the meantime. When that study was published, rather than answers to the questions that were put, what we got were the questions being repeated. All the while farmers have been left to carry the can, wondering if their enterprises and farms can remain viable and certainly wondering whether they will be in a position to pass it on to the next generation. I note the Minister references the recommendation in regard to a wool council. He said that one of the main recommendations concerned the establishment of an industry-led wool council. To clarify, the recommendation was for the establishment of an all-Ireland wool council. Again, considering some of the discussions we had last night, it is interesting he dropped the reference to all-Ireland. This may be something that can be clarified in his closing remarks.

In terms of prices, and this goes to the crux of the problem, our sheep farmers suffer the consequences of unchecked, often cartel-like practices in the meat processing industry. The Minister brought forward a Bill on an agrifood regulator. The heads of Bill were clearly not fit for purpose, a view that was shared by the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine. To his credit, the Minister has accepted many of the recommendations from that committee, along with some of the amendments we put forward on Committee Stage. There still remains a particular chasm between the approach of Government and the approach required. If the regulator is a position to make a different to sheep farmers and other vulnerable sectors, it has to be able to address anti-competitive practices that might not fit into the narrow definition of an unfair trading practice, but which are crucial to the operation of meat processors and the fact that vulnerable and important sectors regularly operate at below cost.

I was astounded the Minister managed to make an opening address without referencing Brexit at all. Few sectors are as exposed to the consequences of Brexit as the red meat sector. British trade deals with New Zealand and Australia pose a significant threat and will only be compounded if the EU proceeds to sign its own deals without having protections in place. Yet Ireland was one of the few countries that had the potential for dedicated supports to offset the worse impacts of Brexit. It was due to the stories of, and the potential impacts on, our peripheral farmers, particularly those in the west and in Border regions, and the implications of Brexit, that ensured the European Union established a Brexit Adjustment Reserve fund. It was the stories of those farmers and the communities from which they came that ensured Ireland got the bulk of that funding to the tune of €1 billion. Yet virtually no money has gone directly to those very people who secured the funding in the first place; in fact, the Minister has apparently signed off on siphoning money from the Brexit Adjustment Reserve fund into other funds. When asked, the Minister retorts with the complications and the frustrating bureaucracy involved with deriving money from the Brexit Adjustment Reserve fund and giving it directly to farmers. However, there was no difficulty in taking the first €100 million of that money and providing it to meat and food processors. They got a fair share but farmers have not. The existing impact of Brexit is cited when we talk about sheep farmers but it was not mentioned when we were talking about the processors. In that instance, there was talk of investment being used to pay dividends in the years ahead, and that is precisely what our sheep farmers are looking for.

Our sheep farmers are under enormous stress and little fluctuations in the price will not address that. What they want is direct support through a welfare scheme, as Sinn Féin has advocated for in successive budget submissions, and we need Government to intervene. We need a strong intervention, both domestically and at a European level, to ensure the Brexit Adjustment Reserve fund is used to support the people it was established to support in the first place.

1:40 pm

Photo of Kathleen FunchionKathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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I am happy to have the opportunity to speak on this matter. Just this week, on Monday, I had members from the Carlow and Kilkenny Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association, ICSA, in my clinic. When this item was on the agenda, I said I would take the opportunity to raise some of the concerns they raised with me. As people will know, both countries of Carlow and Kilkenny have a good mix of rural and urban but there are many people who rely solely on their income from sheep farming. As we know, and has been said by my colleague, Deputy Matt Carthy, the sheep sector is going through a particularly challenging period. While this might be recognised in words by the Minister and by Government, words are not enough. At this stage, people really need solutions and action.

Irish sheep farmers are in the eye of the perfect storm. On the one hand they are contending with the fallout of Brexit and everything else that comes with that. Then they have the rising input costs and the total annihilation of the wool prices. I fear many small farmers will be wiped out. That is what they are telling us directly in our clinics. They also tell us that there is not a wool sector in Ireland anymore. When I spoke to some of the local sheep farmers this week, it was clear that we are not tapping into the existing opportunities in terms of the various uses of wool. It really seems like a big missed opportunity. It now costs farmers more to sheer their animals and dispose of the wool than any potential income generated from wool sales. I do not think anybody could regard the price farmers get for their wool product to be considered in any way fair trading. We cannot keep expecting farmers to finish lambs at below the cost of production and without direct supports. Farmers ask me what the point is in awaiting the publication of the feasibility study into Ireland's wool sector as they do not feel the report proposes any real solutions.

I see their point concerning this. My colleague mentioned Brexit and this is undoubtedly having an impact on our farmers. While Brexit and the non-existent wool sector present their own difficulties, another pressure point relates to market prices, which we know are dictated by the all-powerful meat processors and factories. The reality is that farmers do not get a fair price for the whole animal. There are international markets into which meat factories and processors sell every part of the animal, but farmers do not see any of these sideline profits.

As someone who does not come from an agricultural background, I always tell people in a similar situation to go into a butcher's shop or supermarket and look at the price of meat. When they then hear what farmers are getting for that meat, they could not but say how deeply unfair this is. I make this point to show that a person does not necessarily have to be an expert in this field to understand that farmers are being treated very unfairly. Despite the sector crying out for assistance and a level of resilience-building and policy to emanate from the Department, farmers have been left wanting and waiting. They are looking for an increase in the paltry €10 sheep welfare payment. We have committed in our proposals, as my colleague said, to increase this payment to €20. I think the Minister has committed to an increase of €2. I do not see how this would adequately deal with any of the challenges being faced. In fact, €2 is quite a bit of an insult to people. We need confirmation of what rescue package will be provided for the sector. Sheep farmers need direct supports and a clear pathway to ensure the viability of the sector.

People I have met have suggested that the Brexit adjustment reserve, BAR, fund could be used in the short term as an emergency support package. The allocation of €100 million from the BAR fund to meat factories and processors is a particularly bitter pill for small sheep farmers to swallow. I believe officials in the Department have been instructed to examine potential supports for sheep farmers, but we need to see an acceleration in action and a timeline. This is one of the key things here. We need action points and a timeline, with key targets, to improve the sustainability of the sector. There is true value in having a vibrant sheep sector for regional economies and this must be recognised. We must ensure we are supporting this sector so that it is not decimated. We are in real fear of this happening.

1:50 pm

Photo of Alan DillonAlan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I would like to address a pressing concern I have that has the potential to reshape the very fabric of our rural communities. I refer to the question of who will farm the land if our sheep farmers, faced with a sectoral crisis and low incomes, decide to abandon their farms. Can the Minister imagine a future where the sheep farms that once dotted the picturesque countryside of my constituency in Mayo have vanished and been replaced with overgrown fields and abandoned homesteads? With each farm that closes its door, we lose not only a vital part of our agricultural industry but also the rich heritage and traditions passed down through generations. Our rural communities have been built on the hard work and resilience of our sheep farmers who have provided not only a livelihood for themselves and their families but also contributed significantly to the local national economy.

It is crucial, therefore, that we now take the necessary steps to address the challenges this sector is facing. We cannot stand idly by as this unfolds. It is our duty as local representatives to support our sheep farmers, ensure they can continue to contribute to our local economy and pass this knowledge and passion for their land on to future generations. The sector, especially at the primary sheep producer level, is in crisis. We must acknowledge this and time is running out. Many sheep producers I spoke to are grappling with increased production costs while prices for their products are continuing to fall. This precarious situation is unsustainable for new and existing farmers.

It is our responsibility, as representatives of the people, to implement policies and support measures that will help to alleviate this burden. I propose we address the inadequacies in the current sheep improvement scheme, which offers only €12 per ewe, to protect the economic viability of the sector. The amount is insufficient to provide the support our farmers need to maintain their livelihoods and to keep the sector alive. We must increase the financial aid to at least €25 per ewe through enhanced, directly targeted supports. This increased funding will ensure new entrants into sheep farming are provided with the opportunity to build their flocks while also supporting existing farmers in the sector.

In addition to these enhanced financial supports, it is essential we continue to invest in research and development to improve the overall efficiency and sustainability of the sheep farming sector by developing new, innovative solutions and by implementing best practices so we can help our farmers to overcome the challenges they face and ensure the long-term viability of this important industry. I also urge the Minister's Department and An Bord Bia to actively pursue new markets for our sheep products. I welcome the Minister's initial statements regarding this aspect. By increasing the demand for these high-quality products, we can help to stabilise prices and provide much-needed security for farmers.

We must recognise that the sheep farming sector is facing a crisis and time is running out. The departure of our sheep farmers would leave a void that would never truly be filled. New generations are reluctant to enter the industry, discouraged by the financial struggles and instability faced by their predecessors. The skills and knowledge honed over centuries of sheep farming in Mayo and other counties may be lost, to be replaced by an uncertain future for our rural landscape. It is our responsibility to address these challenges head on and to provide the necessary supports to keep this crucial economic component of our local economy alive and thriving. We need a package to help in this regard, and it is needed urgently. We saw how the pig sector thrived and bounced back when it received a lifeline in the form of a support package. We must, therefore, increase the financial aid provided by the sheep improvement scheme, invest in research and development and actively pursue new markets to ensure the future of our rural communities. The very fabric of our national identity depends on the success and resilience of our sheep farming sector.

Photo of Joe FlahertyJoe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome this opportunity to discuss the state of the sheep sector. I had hoped the Minister could have used today's slot to announce additional supports for the sector. Notwithstanding that, I welcome his commitment that his Department is continuing to investigate what additional supports can be made available to support the sector. I stress, though, to the Minister and the Department that we cannot delay any longer in providing additional supports as this sector is genuinely struggling. I appreciate there may have been an argument that the Minister wanted to wait until any benefits could accrue from seasonal price increases as a result of religious festivities running over this month, but I feel the prices we have now have effectively bottomed out. They have peaked now at a level that is significantly down on the prices available last year and will certainly not return to any comparable level.

This point was put to us forcefully yesterday by Dermot Kelleher, the president of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association, ICSA, and other members. Also included was Councillor Paraic Brady, from Longford, who accompanied them to the Dáil yesterday. They emphasised forcefully that the sector really is struggling, and this has also been eloquently emphasised by my colleague, Deputy Dillon. I also met with several sheep farmers in Longford. This sector is a key component in the farmer ecosystem in County Longford, with many small and marginal operators. The reality is all these people are struggling on the back of several months of sustained and record low prices. I recently met many of these farmers and the local IFA representatives, including Luke Casey, chair of the Longford IFA committee, on the farm of Gavin White. They emphasised that the sector simply will not survive without a timely intervention from the Department. The reality is they cannot sustain their businesses, invariably in all cases family businesses, on a measly €7 return per lamb.

All of this comes against a backdrop of uncertain market conditions and soaring production costs. Many of these small farmers emphasised these concerns when the Minister spoke to them at a public meeting in Longford in recent weeks. He saw there the passion and enthusiasm in this sector, but the reality is this is starting to wane. The sector is facing a perfect storm now, with a decreased demand for sheep meat due to the cost-of-living crisis in our main export markets, most notably in France. I accept there have been some modest price improvements in recent weeks, as referred to, on the back of the Ramadan market. We are, though, still well down on the prices from this time last year and we are almost certainly unlikely to obtain those prices again any time soon. Increasing competition is also posing a challenge, with a recent recovery in the UK sheep meat sector, as well as more products entering Europe from New Zealand and other southern hemisphere producers.

I appreciate, as the Minister correctly outlined in his opening address, that sheep farmers can access the sheep improvement scheme and also the targeted agricultural modernisation scheme. Obviously many sheep farmers will access ACRES and can also apply to the fodder scheme. However, ultimately this sector needs a dedicated support package similar to what was afforded to the pig sector towards the back end of last year. We are very proud of the fact that Ireland is the fourth largest meat exporter in the world, and the second largest exporter of sheep meat in the EU. It is a position we attained on the back of several generations of hard graft and solid family farming. It is a global standing we should not take lightly and in fact it is an international standing we should cherish and applaud. Irish sheep and meat exports last year were valued at €475 million, an increase of 17% on 2021.

I am glad to see some progress being made on sheep wool. I welcome the establishment of the Wool Council and I know it had its first meeting just before Christmas. I ask that the Minister that the Department put some courage and conviction behind the Wool Council. It is critical for the sector that we get a viable market for wool. At the minute, wool is effectively worthless. Farmers tell us they have stored the wool on their lands and in sheds and have risked losing their farm payments because it is regarded as offal if left too long on the farm. We need to get a viable option and an alternative for farmers, be that clothing, or - probably one of most salient and exciting proposals for wool - as a fertiliser by-product. We need, as a Government, to put our money where our mouth is and put investment into the sheep sector and into the wool sector specifically to see what products we can develop be that insulation for homes in the teeth of a major cost of energy crisis.

The message is very clear from the sheep farmers of not only Longford but indeed every county across the country which has a strong and a family-backed sheep sector. The reality is that the sector is facing a crisis and it is desperately appealing to us, but more importantly the Minister and his Department, for timely support and intervention.

2:00 pm

Photo of Rose Conway-WalshRose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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Sheep farming is an important driver of economic activity in many parts of rural Ireland, generating €476 million in exports alone in 2022 from 47,123 farms involved in sheep farming, especially in areas that were otherwise starved of inward investment. Mayo is a mountainous county where agriculture plays a vital role in underpinning the rural economy. In Mayo more than 30% of the county has some level of environmental legislation, such as Natura, special areas of conservation, or natural heritage areas, NHAs. It is because of this that sheep farming represents the only realistic option for many farmers. All of those farmers are under pressure. Sheep farmers in Mayo have in recent years endured the collapse of wool prices, rising input costs, and indeed Brexit. It is estimated that close to 75% of Mayo's sheep farmers, or around 4,000, are hill farmers. Around a quarter of the flocks in the county are lowland operations. However, making a living from hill and lowland sheep production is not easy as it is under severe threat. As my colleague Deputy Carthy stated, sheep farmers have seen their net margins decrease from 81% to a paltry €7 per ewe. I note the Minister said in his opening statement that it was €6.85 per kilo, I think, in Donegal. However, we have to remember at this time of the year that most farmers will be selling their lambs come the back end of the year from September and October onwards. Therefore the price that is there now does not really reflect what they will secure a number of months later. What that really means is that the direct payment farmers receive is being transferred to meat producers and supermarkets. Direct payments were created to ensure the security of our food supply and to provide a decent standard of living to farmers. When meat processors are allowed to drive down prices public money is redirected away from where it is intended and to corporate profits. Low prices also mean farmers are pushed into larger, more intensive practices to remain viable. The average farm in Mayo is just 22 ha and the average flock has just 82 ewes. The vast majority are completely organic but the model is in danger. While lowland farmers may have the option to change or combine farming enterprises, hill farmers cannot.

Once a valuable commodity that farmers derived income from, international pressures on market prices has resulted in income derived from wool being largely subsumed to offset the cost of shearing. The Government put the issue on the long finger and told farmers to wait for the publication of the feasibility study on the potential to develop the domestic wool sector. I welcome that the Minister has set up the Wool Council. As was said, it needs to get into action and to be properly resourced to do what it has to do in that regard because there is huge potential there.

We have not talked about Brexit and its impact. The reason sheep farmers are so hard-pressed at the moment is because of the failure of the Government to invest in the sector and bring resilience so they have space in their margins to observe the impact of market volatility. The Minister's colleagues come to the House and vote one way and then go to their constituencies and say something else. It is very clear across the House that the ewe premium needs to be increased to €20 and the Minister needs to get on to the same page as that because the €2 increase was absolutely not enough.

I also want to say, so that we are very clear, that the sheep welfare scheme will provide for the volatility that is there. I welcome the Minister's lime initiative but I ask that he ensures the producers of the lime do not hike up the prices, particularly for example in Ballycroy, Belmullet or round that area in Mayo, where there is a two hour each way round trip for the delivery of lime, so that there are not extortionate costs for it. It is a good initiative but it needs to be made affordable for people. We need better markets for light lambs, that is between 12 kg and 13 kg when killed out. We need to make sure there is a market for that and for what is produced in marginalised areas and land such as my own. There are very practical things that can be done to make sheep farming viable and I ask the Minister to do them.

Photo of Holly CairnsHolly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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I welcome this overdue discussion of the major challenges facing the sheep sector. It is fair to say that these farmers have been severely hit by recent circumstances, especially Brexit and increasing operating costs, and that they simply have not received the same level of support as other sectors in agriculture. There are more than 47,000 sheep keepers registered with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, with 36,000 herds being recorded for 2021, spread across the country. The past year has been particularly difficult with operating and input costs rising rapidly, while at the same time the prices sheep farmers receive are down. This is simply unsustainable.

In addition, for years now, very few farmers have been able to make profit from wool. In many cases wool is discarded. Because we do not have the proper structures in place it is economically worthless. It is important to say that again, that wool is being thrown away despite the fact that it is incredibly versatile, from textiles and horticulture to fertiliser and insulation. It could be insulating our homes in the middle of a housing crisis when the cost of construction has just sky-rocketed. It has so many applications and we should really and truly have a thriving wool sector in Ireland. Instead, we have the opposite. That is indicative of an approach that fails to value wool as a product, an economic asset and a cultural heritage.

What is the Government going to do? The Minister has been aware of the situation since taking office and he knows how difficult it is for sheep farmers right now. His solution in the budget was just inadequate for the pressure farmers are facing. The new sheep improvement scheme increased the payment rate by €2 ewe, from €10 to €12, but that €2 was straight away already eaten up with rising costs from shearing to vaccines. Sheep farmers are basically running just to stand still.

There is a pressing and clear need for an intervention package, including direct payments and the acceleration of plans to develop the wool industry. Sheep farmers who have been impacted by Brexit have made a strong case that the Brexit adjustment reserve fund should be used to assist farmers currently facing severe challenges. They are seeking €30 per ewe as part of an emergency package. The sector already receives less support than other agriculture areas, and that needs to be considered. The Minister has already acknowledged there is a real challenge in the sheep sector at the moment. What actions is he going to take and what policy changes is he going to make as a result of that acknowledgment?

I raised the issue of wool in the Chamber a few weeks ago. It is incredibly versatile and can be used for clothing, textiles, insulation, horticulture, packaging, cosmetics and composites. It was not that long ago that wool was worth more to sheep farmers than selling the animals themselves. There is no reason we cannot have a thriving wool industry in rural Ireland as we had in the past. It just needs a strong commitment from Government.

I acknowledge the work conducted so far and the establishment of the wool council as an important first step. However, this area needs a strategic focus and immediate investment for long-term results. Last year's feasibility report highlighted both the many opportunities for the sector and the challenges involved in making these avenues a reality. It has provided a clear framework for Government and the wool council. There are numerous recommendations in the report that need to be acted on.

There is a strong emphasis on the role of co-operatives as a model to support farmers, pool resources and keep added value as close to the farm as possible. There are already several wool co-operatives in Ireland, and the British wool board has good practices that could be replicated. Crucially, co-operatives have been identified as a means of addressing our shortage of skilled graders. We are entirely reliant on UK wool merchants to examine and value Irish wool. If we were able to grade the wool, through training and upskilling in co-operatives, we could retain more local control, which is crucial to playing a larger role in the value chain and supply chain. Progress on these matters cannot come soon enough. Farmers need co-operatives and skilled graders.

One of the most glaring and under-released market opportunities is in insulation. Wool is a low-embodied carbon and user-friendly material for thermal and sound insulation. We could replace imported synthetic products with natural Irish materials, while helping to meet our climate targets. This is literally a win-win-win scenario. I cannot understand why the Minister and the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications do not already have a clear and resourced plan in place to make this happen. I met representatives of the ICSA on Monday. One of the things I had not realised is that we do not have a way of scouring wool in this country so it has to be exported for that purpose. We cannot use the wool for any of those industries unless that happens. The wool council is brilliant, but are things being put in place to immediately provide resources here that would allow us to develop the industry? A wool hub in Ireland including that service could be transformative for the industry and rural economies. Following the example of New Zealand, we could have a strong research and innovation centre that would help increase sectoral efficiencies while also improving and increasing the applications for wool. This would also act as a focal point for collaboration between co-operatives and the enhancement of networks to share and develop best practices. We need more information in that regard.

In the words of the report, "While in Ireland, a focus has been on quality meat production, it is time to consider establishing such a Hub to bring a focus on Wool Innovation". I agree that it is time the Government properly supported the wool sector.

Will the Minister clarify what is happening with areas of natural constraint payments? Why has he decided to issue them one month later than usual this year? Small farmers, many of them sheep farmers, depend on that payment to supplement costs and repay loans. Farmers have budgeted to receive that in September, usually the week of the National Ploughing Championships. It is unfair not to offer an explanation for the delay. It is adding to people's long list of worries.

If today’s statements are to be worth anything, sheep farmers need to know the Minister is taking their issue seriously. They need a financial package to address the current issue and they need long-term investment in the sector, especially in light of the considerable potential of wool.

2:10 pm

Photo of Marc Ó CathasaighMarc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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I will begin by asking a straightforward and fundamental question: who is this sector currently working for? Who is it working for socially, economically or environmentally? It is difficult to answer that question. In considering the social aspect, people have pointed out the importance of sheep farming and upland farming within our communities. I was at a meeting of the Comeragh Uplands and Communities EIP Project recently. I was not quite the youngest person in the room but I was not far from it. The age demographic of the people who are farming these uplands closely resembles the age demographic in the Dáil. They are older people. They are telling me that the reason they are continuing to farm their lands and not hand them over is that the younger generation does not want to take it on. One would struggle to find an upland farmer in his or her 30s.

Why is the sector not working socially? It is not working socially because it is not working economically. It is incredibly difficult for a sheep farmer, particularly in the uplands, to make money from the enterprise. There is hard graft in sheep farming and there is no getting around that. The average income from sheep farming in 2023 is going to fall by 2% to €19,500. I realise these are, in general, smaller farms but €19,500 does not equate to an income. These are part-time farmers and people who are having to earn off-farm incomes to make ends meet. We can see why. The Minister referenced €6.70 per kg, which is something of an improvement to the price people are getting for their lamb. The IFA figure has already been quoted. We have seen net margins on farms drop by 81% to just €7 per ewe. That reality combined with ever-increasing input costs tells us it is not working for sheep farmers.

Wool has been mentioned on numerous occasions. It is something we deliberately included in the programme for Government so we can examine the issue in a coherent way, to develop our wool strategy, move on to the wool council and find all of those uses to which other Deputies have referred so we can add value to the product. That is all welcome and we cannot do it quickly enough. The sooner the better in terms of bringing that work to a result. However, at the moment it is costing farmers as much to get the shearing done as they are going to make on the wool. We have heard from multiple speakers that the wool is sometimes simply discarded.

The situation is obviously working for somebody. The €500 million in exports has been mentioned. My colleague Deputy Flaherty was applauding the fact we are the second largest exporter of sheep meat within the EU. I am not sure that is something we should be necessarily be applauding. I am not sure the benefit here is in producing more and more. I am not sure that is a model that has been working for farmers. It is working for somebody. It is working for the meat processors and exporters but I am not at all convinced it is working for the farmers. We are seeing an increase in numbers. We saw an increase of 6.4% in the number of sheep in the country, based on recent figures. However, I am not sure the economic model of more and more and developing and opening new markets is the way to go. The way to go is far more along the lines of what Deputy Cairns said about trying to keep the added value closer to the farm gate. Connemara lamb is an example of the development of a high-grade product where added value is happening on the farm. That makes much more sense to me. It makes more sense economically but also environmentally.

The Minister spoke in his speech about the hills being postcards to tourists. The Minister of State, Deputy Heydon, talked about preserving a unique landscape, but that is not the fact of the matter. In fact, when we look at Irish hills and mountains at the moment, we are looking at a landscape that is denuded by overgrazing. It is not a landscape that is actually supporting our biodiversity objectives. We have acknowledged in this Dáil that we are living through an environmental and biodiversity crisis. It is also not a model that works for us in terms of the type of carbon sequestration that we know can happen on our hillsides. It is certainly not a picture of what our hillsides would look like if they were not being intensively grazed. That is not to try to place any blame on the hill farmers who have been forced into this model.

That was the big lesson I learned when I went up to the lads by the Mahon Falls just above Kilrossanty and spoke to them. Through their engagement through the EIP, they found they learned far more about the hills, the biodiversity, the heritage richness - both archaeological and in biodiversity - that exists on their landscape. It changed their whole mindset about how they wanted to engage in the management of those mountains where their families have been for years. They are as frustrated by this model as anybody else. They are frustrated by the idea of having to push more and more units through land that is already degraded for the benefit of whom? As I said, I think it is the processors and exporters. By exporting 85% of this product, we are onshoring ecological and biological damage in order to export product. I do not think that is serving the people who are working the land.

As part of this debate, I want to mention commonages, which form a significant part of the ownership mosaic, particularly in mountainous areas. If there is an issue with succession and succession planning for hillside farms, what is happening with commonages is even more stark. I submitted a parliamentary question relatively recently and would not expect the answer yet. Based on figures from 2014, the dormancy rates on our commonages are running at a national average of 63.3%. That means that if ten people have a share in a commonage, only three or four of them are actively working it. When controlled burning of heather needs to be done to renew the grass, six of the ten do not turn up. When there are discussions about how to manage their share of the land, they turn up then and suddenly have an opinion. There is a difficulty there. As a reflection of the scale of what we are talking about, 440,000 ha are under commonage. It is a difficult mosaic to manage. It is difficult for these people to make good decisions about how they will manage that area of land with that level of dormancy.

The EU nature restoration law was discussed with representatives from the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers' Association, INHFA, at this week's meeting of the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action. If we are looking to vindicate the types of goals in that EU nature restoration law, if we are really serious about hitting our emissions reduction targets in agriculture and if we are serious about trying to restore our upland bogs, we will need to get serious about how we fund the landowners to make the types of changes required. I am not convinced that funding per head in order to increase throughput and open some new export market while growing our stock numbers by 6.4% is the way to achieve those goals while providing a viable on-farm income for the people closest to the land and who should stand to benefit most.

In a recent article, entitled Goodbye to the Hills, the Irish Wildlife Trust stated that commonages are too big to continue to fail, whether that is socially, economically or environmentally. I agree with that. It is part of the picture we will need to look at in detail if we are to address issues relating to land use, land-use change and the nature restoration law in a serious way. That is where we need to look.

All of us here are good at coming in and outlining problems, which is the easy part, rather than outlining solutions. I think the solutions lie in funding the people who work our land in a different way. I do not believe that maximising throughput with no regard to the environmental or social damage being inflicted on people stacks up. We will not be able to continue with that kind of model in 2030 or 2050. If we want things like the EU nature restoration law to work, we need to fund adequately the landowners, the people who work that land. More often than not, they have the precise skills needed to manage the lands in a way to allow us to meet our emissions and biological targets. They are the people closest to the land and understand it best. We need to move away from a model that is just mining the ecological heritage of our landscape in order to produce an export market and move much closer to something that values the inherent value of that land and the people working it.

2:20 pm

Photo of Ruairi Ó MurchúRuairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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There is significant agreement on the pressure sheep farmers are experiencing. I would even agree with some of what has been said by the Ministers in the sense that farmers are looking for a fair price for their work and product. Unfortunately, that is not the situation they find themselves in. In recent years sheep farmers have had to deal with the collapse of wool prices along with rising input prices, Brexit and other international factors.

We know that it does not wash its face as a business at this point in time. Farmers are very lucky if the actual price of wool is sufficient to cover the price of shearing. This does not make sense to anybody who is dealing with this. We know work needs to be done regarding international markets and developing a wool sector. Everyone has spoken about the rights and wrongs regarding the report. I agree with Deputy Carthy in the sense that in some cases the questions that were asked are just being asked again. We are talking about further investigation and further reports. As has been discussed, there is support for the idea of a wool council. Obviously, it needs to be resourced in order to deliver what is necessary regarding the issue we are discussing. I also reiterate that the recommendation was for an all-island wool council. Deputy Carthy has already asked for clarity on that while realising that the Minister will be away. We need to ensure that that particular question is answered.

It just does not make sense that we are awaiting further reviews. At some time, we need to be able to deliver. At this point in time, we are talking about the issue regarding British trade deals with Australia and New Zealand. We know what is coming down the line regarding an EU deal with those two specific countries. This could compound the issue they are facing at present. We need to look at supports. There has been general disappointment that we have not heard anything about supports. I reiterate my party's policy that the sheep welfare payment needs to be increased to €20. The Government's €2 increase from €10 to €12 will not cut the mustard in any shape or form.

As sometimes happens here, it has all been said very quickly and very easily. Insufficient work has been done on the Brexit Adjustment Reserve Fund. Sheep farmers form part of that cohort of people for whom this funding has been allocated. There are issues and obstacles with it. As Deputy Carthy said, the same restrictions do not seem to apply to meat processors and that definitely needs to be rectified.

I hope whoever will be closing for the Government will be able to give me some sort of answer on this. We have discussed the danger of dogs and we are obviously in the middle of the lambing season now. I am talking specifically about an issue that has been brought to me by many farmers and by Councillor Antóin Watters. I am talking about the commonage in the Cooley Peninsula. Louth County Council, the dog wardens and even get An Garda Síochána are attempting to ensure that people understand the responsibilities of dog owners. We need to look at the legislation that underpins it.

I am not entirely sure what "effectual control" of the dog means. If everyone did the right thing, we probably would not need half the rules, but this is a very specific issue. I have no doubt the Minister has had representations in that regard. I know there are wider issues. I spoke to a farmer earlier whom I will call Tom, probably because that is his name, and he raised particular issues. He said we really need responsibility and that we also need enforcement. He said that sometimes when large dogs are on leads, the leads could be 25 ft long so there is no chance of controlling them. We do need to look at this. I know the difficulties with enforcement. Tom also spoke about the fact that at times people are involved in other outdoor pursuits, possibly involving motor bikes and quads. There must be engagement with those who are involved in all these sorts of activities. We need responsibility and good manners. People are talking about the possibility of by-laws, but we must consider legislative pieces also. What does the Minister plan to do in regard to this particular issue? Unfortunately, I will not be here for the response as I have to attend a People's Assembly event in the Carrickdale Hotel, not very far from the Cooley Peninsula. It is on the future of Ireland. I assume stakeholders will deal with some of the issues-----

2:30 pm

Photo of Seán Ó FearghaílSeán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I thank Deputy Ó Murchú. He had better get on his bike now because he is out of time.

Photo of Ruairi Ó MurchúRuairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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-----regarding the evils of partition.

Photo of Seán Ó FearghaílSeán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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That is a separate issue. I thank Deputy Ó Murchú very much for those words of wisdom.

Photo of Jackie CahillJackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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I am glad to be able to participate in this discussion on the sheep sector. I want to follow on from what Deputy Ó Murchú said about sheep kills and the legislation that is necessary to try to control dogs in the countryside. Unfortunately, in recent days we had another sheep kill in Tipperary. It is becoming a far too frequent occurrence. We are just going to have to develop a DNA-based system to identify dogs so that we will be able to prove accurately what dogs have committed the carnage. We all see photographs of such attacks. To see sheep savaged by dogs is as horrible a sight as one could see. Unfortunately, we have had a fairly frequent occurrence of it in Tipperary in recent months. There was a very vicious sheep kill in Lorrha on Christmas Day and there have been three or four sheep kills in the short time since then. I know the Minister is intent on bringing legislation forward on it. It is something we must stamp out. It cannot be tolerated. It is a privilege to own an animal but it also brings responsibility. Owners of dogs have a responsibility to ensure they do not wander aimlessly at night and carry out such destruction. A nice domestic pet can be a different animal when he gets into a gang of dogs. Unfortunately, when they get the scent of blood they can become very vicious.

Thankfully, the price of sheep has gone up in the past two weeks. Hogget and lamb prices have gone up by 70 cent or 80 cent a kilogram. There was a lot of room for that improvement as the price had come down alarmingly from where it was last year. I hope it will continue to increase as we get into the season for Easter lamb. That is a very expensive product to produce and farmers want some kind of meaningful return to justify the cost of production.

I wish to raise the weight restriction being operated by processors. This is something we must focus on. It is difficult for people to understand that there is no payment at all for 2 kg of the dead weight of a sheep. For example, for a hogget weighing 25 kg, the factories pay for 23 kg and nothing more. The extra carcass weight does not get dumped so the processors have a serious advantage. The restrictions for lamb are even tighter. Certain breeds of lamb and hogget are able to carry a significantly higher weight than the processors allow, as they do not have much fat cover. This issue must be examined. If the weight restriction of 2 kg or 3 kg was lifted for lamb and hogget, it would add greatly to the profitability of producing the lamb. If we take the price at the moment for hoggets at €6.80 a kilogramme, if we were allowed 2 kg extra on the weight it would be more than €13 extra for the hogget. That would make a huge difference to the profitability of the sector. This is something that must be urgently examined.

We have all seen the reports on the average profitability of ewes in the past year at €7 per ewe. I do not have to tell the Minister that is an extremely low figure. One would have to have a huge herd to have any kind of significant economic return. That is including the €12 subsidy that the Government is paying, so the ewe is actually living at a loss. We must look at the subsidy and examine how we can get extra funding from the Exchequer in next year's budget to increase it, in order to try to maintain the ewe flock. At peak, we had 5 million ewes in the country. We are now down to 2.7 million ewes, which is virtually a reduction of 50% on what we had in the 1980s. That has led to difficulties with processing as well because we have the processing facilities and throughput brings down the cost per unit of processing. The level of our ewe flock is at a stage whereby if it goes any lower it would seriously damage the industry.

The Northern Ireland protocol and Brexit have been mentioned in the debate a good few times today. To put it mildly, I am sceptical about producers of lamb in England, Scotland and Wales using the protocol to get lamb into Irish processors and thereby gain entry into the French market. I have been told it is not happening but I have my doubts. I would like to see greater transparency in this regard. We had Bord Bia in before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine last week and it assured us that any lamb that is sold under Origin Green is of Irish origin. I hope that is the case. Sheep flock owners are concerned that Northern Ireland is being used as an avenue to get sheep into the Republic and on to the French market. We must keep an eye on that. We all want cross-Border trade, but the UK made a decision to exit the EU. Welsh, Scottish and English sheep farmers voted for that and they cannot have access to the lucrative French market through a back door.

I wish to raise another issue with the Minister. We had two young entrepreneurs before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine a couple of weeks ago. They are promoting sheep milk, which is a very viable industry on the Continent, especially in Greece and Spain. Teagasc has not done any research into its viability in this country. I urge the Minister to ensure some research is done to see if we could have a viable sheep milk industry. Sheep milk has a lot of health advantages. Sheep cheese in continental Europe is different to other cheeses but it has a niche market. There is vast production of sheep cheese in Europe and its potential here should at least be examined. Two young farmers from Cashel in Tipperary are intent on trying to get the industry up and running in this country. It merits more research to see if it is a runner economically and if the likes of Bord Bia can get markets for us for sheep milk.

I ask the Minister to suggest to Teagasc, during his discussions with it, that it carry out research into the matter. The two brothers to whom I refer have done much research into it and are convinced it is a viable project. It merits consideration.

In order to get the sheep subsidy, one has to keep a ewe for 365 days. The Minister should look at shortening that retention period significantly. It is an obstacle to people claiming for all their ewes. If the retention period was 90 days and the ewe had to be on the farm for 90 days in a calendar year, a farmer would be able to claim for her. At this time of year, when a farmer finds out that a ewe is not in lamb or that, for whatever reason, she needs to be culled, he or she will not qualify for the retention period. In most schemes, part of the calendar year suffices to claim for animals. In disadvantaged areas, there is a seven-month window in which one has to have stock. If the retention period was reduced, it would be an advantage to flock owners. I would like the Minister to give consideration to that.

The sum of €7 per ewe is no return. Hopefully, prices will start to increase. Flock owners and representatives of farming organisations have said they feel the American market could be exploited for Irish lamb. Ornua has made great strides in the United States with dairy products. Years ago, we established a premium market in Germany and are doing the same in the United States now for dairy products. The opportunity is there for Bord Bia to try to exploit that for Irish lamb. A market like that will give a premium for lamb and could contribute greatly to the profitability of the sector. I ask the Minister to use his influence with Bord Bia to put extra funding into the American market to try to establish Irish lamb with a real presence there.

2:40 pm

Photo of Martin KennyMartin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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We are all aware that the sheep sector has been in crisis for many years. This does not come as a surprise. Sheep farmers, mainly those in mountainous areas and with poorer land, much of it in the west, including in my constituency, are finding it very difficult to manage and have been for quite some time.

The sheep welfare payment in place is not adequate to deal with the situation. When the then Minister, Deputy Creed, introduced it, he made a great fanfare about the fact that to implement a welfare programme like that, various measures had to be put in place around animal husbandry, environmental improvements, etc. In order to make the payments, those were part of the rules put in place. I felt from the outset that those rules were too stringent and went too far because they did not facilitate the possibility of any expansion. How could we increase the money if we set the rules so tight from the start? That has been one of the difficulties. The level of payment is far too low to sustain the industry. We all recognise that.

The Minister had a review into the situation, but that has not come up with anything. The €2 increase is paltry; it is not nearly enough. It needs to increase to at least the €20 we proposed in the past. The sheep sector needs more support outside of that. It strikes me, as in all sectors of farming, that the person taking all the risks, getting up at night to look at the animals, nursing them and putting in all the work, gets the least profit at the end of the day. That is one of the major inequities in all aspects of farming, particularly livestock farming.

I speak to many farmers who, particularly at this time of year when ewes are lambing all over the country, are up at night trying to manage and bringing lambs into their kitchen with bottles and all that when a ewe passes on. That still happens for many families. The nurturing nature it creates on the family farm, particularly for children, stands to people as they advance in years, but it does not provide for much when they cannot get an adequate price for the product. That is the bottom line.

The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association at recent meetings talked about the price needing to be over €8 per kilo to provide a sustainable income for farmers. We have a problem in this country and it goes back to a situation we have spoken about for many years. It relates to ensuring we have adequate oversight of the factories doing the processing and buying in the animals and of the supermarkets, to ensure the primary producer and the consumer get fair play. It is my view, and, I think, that of most people, that those two ends of it get the raw deal. We see the price of the product increasing for the consumer, yet the primary producer gets very little of that higher price. That needs to change and can only change with proper regulation. The proposals put in place to do that have not delivered, and that needs to be re-examined.

The other by-product of sheep farming mentioned by previous speakers is wool. We are in a terrible scenario whereby wool is being produced in Ireland and most of it is being dumped or bought at very low prices. For many decades it was exported to China and came back as fabric to other parts of the world. There needs to be a handle got on all of that. I encourage the Minister to ensure we find a proper outlet for that valuable product which has been for too long something farmers have not got any payment for. The key is ensuring that farmers get a proper price when they go to market. That needs to be at least above €8 per kilo. There needs to be a way of ensuring that happens through proper regulation around that and around the support scheme that is in place, which at present is far too low. I encourage the Minister to review that.

Photo of Denis NaughtenDenis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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When I secured the introduction of the sheep welfare scheme alongside Councillor Laurence Fallon in 2016 at a payment of €10 per breeding ewe, it was always the intention to see that increased over time. The payment was put in place so farmers could go beyond the relevant mandatory standards in place to enhanced standards of animal welfare in the sheep flock. Disappointingly, over the past six years, not one additional penny has been provided for that scheme until now, despite the pressure that has been put on sheep farmers and their families.

Over the past six years, Teagasc has shown sheep farmers’ income has gone down by 550%, while the cost of fertilisers has gone up by 400%; yet the sheep improvement scheme, which is the replacement for the sheep welfare scheme, is only being increased by €2 per head, which just about meets the rise in general inflation but takes no account of the dramatic increase in input costs farmers have faced or of the fall in profitability over that period. Even before the current crisis, my colleagues and I in our pre-budget submission consistently sought an increase in the budget to €50 million for the sheep welfare scheme in order to ensure that farmers would receive a payment of at least €25 per head, which is the minimum required for the lowland sheep industry and which is significantly higher than what is proposed by Sinn Féin today.

It is not just about income, but also about viability, which is vital to ensuring the long-term sustainability of the sector. It is the most environmentally sustainable food production industry we have in this country. While we hear much talk from the Government about making agriculture more environmentally sustainable, there is very little coming forward in practical terms to support that transition.

It is not just about food production.

We have also seen a massive hike in the price of home insulation products. The vast majority of the wool used in home insulation in this country is imported from abroad. Even though fertiliser costs had doubled before the war in Ukraine broke out, and doubled again since, not a finger has been lifted to adapt the use of wool as a natural fertiliser. Shearing costs farmers dearly but the potential uses of wool are not being exploited and meanwhile farmers are dumping it onto the only market available outside the European Union.

We have 3.5 million sheep in this country, producing a sustainable organic renewable fibre, namely, wool, which has great potential as a textile, a fertiliser, insulation and even packaging and yet it is not being exploited. We are not putting the investment into the research. While the Government report published last July spoke about putting investment into research and development all we see is €30,000 for a wool council.

2:50 pm

Photo of Seán CanneySeán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on this very important subject for the sheep farmers and mixed farmers in Galway East. Every night young farmers, parents and families are out trying to look after their sheep in the lambing pens. They do this for nothing. This is an issue of survival. Deputy Naughten mentioned the welfare scheme introduced in 2016. That was prior to Brexit. It was also prior to any of the large rises in the cost of production. An Bord Bia has said publicly that Brexit has had an effect on the price of sheep and on the supply. It has also created a backdoor to Europe for the UK through Ireland and we need to sort this out.

The question is: what can we do here? The Government needs to look at what we are doing. As we included in our budget submission, a €50 million support scheme is required if we are to show respect for the sheep farmers in this country and for their families. It is important that this is not about crying wolf. This is a survival cry from the farmers. We will find farmers will leave the sheep behind them. They will just sell them off and get out. Young farmers will not entertain an unviable business. We need to treat this as an emergency and make sure the €50 million is found to give hope to farmers and their families.

I heard a member of the Green Party speak. This does not have to do with the green agenda. It is about the welfare of sheep and the survival of farming family income. If we do not do this, I do not where we are going. It is not a huge amount of money in the overall context of money being spent on everything and anything. Farmers have shown they are resilient but there is a limit to their patience on this. I ask the Minister to look at it.

Another issue I want to raise is the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES. It came to my attention this morning that a good number of submitted applications are not being accepted because they are not being seen by the Department on its portal. Correspondence has been received to state the applications have been made. It is important the Minister looks at this. I will send him further details on it. If farmers have applied for ACRES but there is a glitch on the system, there has to be some mechanism so they can be allowed to qualify. This was brought to my attention this morning and a fair number of farmers are involved. I do not have the full details. When we introduce a system such as this and the Department sets up a portal, there is an onus on the Department to make sure it is workable. If there are problems with it the Department should help to rectify them rather than rejecting applications. This has created a lot of stress. If we are to bring the farming community along with everything we want to do on climate action, the last thing we want to do is to find ways to rule them out of ACRES. I know this is not the intention of the Minister but if the Department is doing this, it needs to be highlighted now and nipped in the bud. It is very important. Farmers have given a vote of confidence to ACRES. Let us make sure that every farmer who legitimately qualifies is allowed to participate. If this takes a little bit of tweaking of the system, it should be done. It is important that farmers are treated with the respect they deserve. I will send the Minister further details on this.

Photo of Frank FeighanFrank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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I very much welcome the opportunity to speak on this very important issue. I thank the Minister and the Minister of State for the work they are doing on this. I come from the constituency that covers Sligo, Leitrim, north Roscommon and south Donegal. Certainly sheep farming is very important in these areas. I am very aware of this situation. I have met the four IFA county chairs, namely, Joe Sweeney from Donegal, Des McHugh from Leitrim, Pat Leonard from Roscommon and Kathleen Henry from Sligo. They outlined exactly the seriousness of this situation. I also pay tribute to Kevin Comiskey, who is chair of the IFA's national sheep committee, and Gabriel Gilmartin of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association, ICSA. We have met everybody. Even this week, we had the ICSA in our party rooms. Its representatives outlined the seriousness of the situation.

I had a newsagents in my home town. The sheep farmers and beef farmers spend the money they make in the local economy. It generates multiples in economic activity and I know this from my work over the years. The sheep sector is in crisis. As has been said, sheep farmers were the inventors of the circular economy long ago before the term was invented. I do not know what it was called then but they were very loyal to the towns and villages they grew up and farmed around. I want to put this on the record.

We have put in place significant funding through a range of supports but we need to do little bit more. It is good to hear that lamb prices have increased in recent weeks. We need to monitor developments closely. In the coming period, we will see an upturn in prices associated with Easter. We need to back the sector. We need to do everything we can to support our farm families in the time ahead. Teagasc forecasts that the income outlook for 2023 will be slightly below 2022 levels. This is very worrying. In any business, and especially sheep farming which is very labour-intensive, people need to get their margins. If the margin reduces, it sounds alarm bells.

The new sheep improvement scheme, which has more than 19,000 applications, is welcome. It has the aim of improving animal health and welfare in the sector. There is a 20% increase in the ewe payment rate of €12. The farmers I have met wanted €30. We have to provide a little bit more. The uptake on the scheme must be welcomed. The fact is that 46,000 farmers have secured places on ACRES and this will benefit many sheep farmers. There is range of bespoke measures. They will all probably help in the end but sheep farmers are looking for an increase in the ewe payment. This is what I took from my meetings with these incredible people who are championing the environment.

They are very concerned that as a business or industry or even as a way of life, children will not seek to follow if they do not have the margins or do not have the proper scheme in place that will ensure farming families not only survive but also thrive.

Teagasc has estimated that output has increased by 7% in 2022 but again, the costs are huge at an approximate 40% rise. That does not add up. The €8 million national liming programme is aimed at all farmers who want to reduce their fertiliser bills. Counties Sligo and Leitrim, however, have some of the highest numbers of specialised sheep producers at 80% and 90% of all farmers respectively. It is higher only in counties Donegal, Mayo and Wicklow. That outlines how important it is in my constituency.

For each €1 of output produced on sheep farms, and this was said to me by the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association, ICSA, due to the multiplier factor, an additional 1.33% is generated in the Irish economy. Sheep farms are based across all counties of Ireland but particularly in the west. That is probably areas where other types of farms are simply not possible. Only for sheep farming, that land would certainly not be farmed, and they are farming what are probably the toughest of areas.

We need to be committed to support the sheep sector through this particularly difficult period in which it now finds itself with high import costs. We need to look at the prices for wool in the medium to long term. We need a sector that is attractive for people who want to carry on that tradition of sheep farming. It is a huge challenge. We need to work closely.

I was in Honk Kong five years ago with the Ceann Comhairle.

3:00 pm

Photo of Seán Ó FearghaílSeán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Indeed.

Photo of Frank FeighanFrank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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We were in China, and I remember going into a supermarket-----

Photo of Mattie McGrathMattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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I hope they had lamb.

Photo of Frank FeighanFrank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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-----in Hong Kong-----

Photo of Matt CarthyMatt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Things went to hell in Hong Kong after that.

Photo of Frank FeighanFrank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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I was in a supermarket in Hong Kong. It was a really small shop, but I remember seeing a T-bone steak in a package that cost €25. I was really proud. I told myself that it was wonderful that we are able to get this margin-----

Photo of Mattie McGrathMattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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Was there any leg of lamb?

Photo of Frank FeighanFrank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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-----but unfortunately, and I am just going to talk about lamb, that was not being passed on to the farmer back home. It was Irish steak, but it was not passed on to the farmer. We need to get into these new markets such the United States, which we are trying to get into, and many others. We need to get the margin. Any business that cannot get the margin is in trouble. We need to ensure, and Opposition and Government Deputies will agree this is the challenge, that the margin is passed on to the markets. That is why the ICSA, the Irish Farmers' Association, IFA, and many other farming organisations are working with us to try to ensure we get that margin. It is a difficult thing to outline but we need to do that. We need to grow the value of our sheep meat exports. Grass-fed lamb is a premium product, not just in Ireland but internationally and, again, continental Europe and the United states can be markets for us. We need to ensure these gains are passed on to the farm gate. I have had very interesting and informative interactions with many of the organisations I have met. I thank them for their openness and sincerity. One can feel that this is a sector facing challenges, however. This Government needs to support the sheep sector. We need to work with farmers and their representatives to try to ensure that whatever is there, we can work again.

The next few weeks will be very important with the markets that are being opened, but also with the Easter market. I hope the increases in cheap prices that have happened in the last two weeks will continue to escalate and ensure farmers will have that margin. I praise their work and resilience. We all have a role in government to try to support people in very difficult times. We must come up with interesting and innovative measures to help them. I attended a meeting one night at which we spoke about farmers and forestry. In 2011, when this country was under pressure and all the so-called industries such as banking and construction collapsed, our Government at the time focused on supporting farming because farmers were always a constant; they were always there. They did something; they produced food. They were always resilient but innovative. At one meeting, we spoke about how we can get farmers to plant trees. One person said we have to make it worthwhile.

Photo of Mattie McGrathMattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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Then the Government should let them cut them.

Photo of Frank FeighanFrank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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That person said we have to make it worthwhile and -----

Photo of Michael FitzmauriceMichael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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They cannot even put in a form now for that.

Photo of Frank FeighanFrank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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We have to ensure that if we are giving incentives as a Government, we have got to take it from other sectors. There is nobody better than the farmer to look at something that is worthwhile from a monetary point of view but also from an environmental point of view. There is nobody better than the farmer or farm families to ensure they will deliver-----

Photo of Mattie McGrathMattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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Cattle prices.

Photo of Frank FeighanFrank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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-----what needs to be delivered. My role as the only Government Deputy in Sligo–Leitrim, north Roscommon and south Donegal is to bring that message to my party and to the Government. I will do everything I can in government to support these people who badly need help at this very difficult time.

Photo of Seán Ó FearghaílSeán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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We move now to the Rural Independent Group. Deputy Mattie McGrath is sharing time with Deputies Michael Collins and Nolan.

Photo of Mattie McGrathMattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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I wish the Ceann Comhairle, his wife and family, and all staff and Members a very holy, happy and peaceful Easter. Indeed, we are talking about lamb and sheep today. Lamb was a traditional feast. Easter lamb was always a proud purchase for a household if they could still afford. I heard today about people writing to Frankie Feighan. They might as well be writing into Frankie Byrne as talking to the Government about the sheep sector or any other sector.

As the Ceann Comhairle knows, I have been seeking this debate for approximately eight weeks from the Business Committee. For the Minister not to be here this evening and say he had a prior appointment in County Donegal is a downright insult. That is no disrespect to the Minister of State. The Minister knew that with the debate that far ahead, it should have been scheduled in.

I do not need to remind anyone so I will only mention two aspects of the old sheep welfare scheme with the premiums. It was £22 per head. People had to retain the ewes and keep them for one year. Now, the Government is telling us it is trying to help and encourage the sheep farmers with a scheme in which they have to keep them for 325 days, and the premium is only €12. It needs to be €30. We need to be realistic here. Teagasc needs to be assertive and accurate in its figures and support the farmers.

I should declare at the very start that I am the proud owner of a hill farm. My son Caoimhín has the farm leased and we have a number of sheep on the slopes of the Knockmealdown mountains. I salute the sheep farmers of the Knockmealdown and Galtee mountains and, indeed, the Comeragh mountains across in Deputy Ó Cathasaigh's area, even though he was playing Mozart or something - I do not know what he was talking about, but we will educate him some day about the sheep and what happens on the mountains. The costs have gone up and soared in every area. Lambing season is now in full swing. Then, we have the pressure of marauding animals. There is no proper legislation. Dogs come in and are left loose. We saw a horrible incident last week in a part of the west where a farmer was assaulted.

Sheep are lovely and very docile animals. They are very good for the green agenda because they clean farms and fields of weeds and everything else. They have lovely produce. The wool industry is another industry with which something could be done. It is just waste now. It costs money to shear the sheep. They must be shorn but the whole industry is lagging. We are importing from China. Maybe Deputy Feighan should have looked at that when he was in China to see if there were any Irish wool products. Material is going out there and coming back in here as products. There are many areas of sheep farming that need support and we are not getting it. We need tangible supports. We have acres of schemes and schemes and schemes. All we want is for the sheep farmers to be allowed to farm. Let them round the sheep up with their sheepdogs, a lovely art and craft. Let them shear them and look after them. They support the veterinarians and we think of all the money that is spent locally, but we are not allowing them the will to live. This Government seems to have a death wish against rural Ireland.

Photo of Michael CollinsMichael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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The sheep sector may as well be shouting into the abyss as aid requests are ignored.

That is the problem here. There is a resilient and determined momentum towards growth within the Irish sheep sector but this cannot be translated into a sustainable or viable economic model for the future in the absence of direct, targeted supports. I met with Mr. Dermot Kelleher, chairman of the ICSA, over the weekend and I met with IFA members on Monday in my house on this issue, or rather, this crisis. To date, despite the aforementioned presenting figures to the Minister and the Government, the Department is operating at a snail's pace in terms of helping sheep farmers through this crisis. The strong sense I am getting from sheep farmers is that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Department have been engaged in a prolonged, disingenuous exercise during the entire debacle. They are seeking to create the impression that a lot is being done to assist sheep farmers when the opposite is the case. The Government is also selling ACRES as if it is some kind of a financial package to address the challenges facing the sheep sector which is an infuriating message for farmers to hear. There is an abundance of data supporting the call for direct, targeted interventions, especially around offering €30 per ewe, for example, but that is being sidestepped and constantly ignored. Now that the margins of some farmers are down to €7 per ewe, the case is unanswered and yet the Government refuses to give an inch. This approach must change if the sheep sector is to survive and thrive.

The Minister, who has left the Chamber again, must listen to those who have been warning him about this crisis. If he does not do so, the income crisis currently plaguing the sector will deepen and he will have no one to blame but himself for such an appalling lack of action. I listened to Deputy Feighan earlier as he spoke about trees. I am really worried when I hear Government Deputies talking about agriculture because anything they have put their hands to recently, when it comes to rural Ireland and agriculture, is being ruined. They are absolutely ruining it. Regarding forestry, good God almighty, the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, is away with the birds. She is not really concentrating on the job she should be doing. The same applies to the other Green Party Deputy who was talking about Mozart and heritage; he was not talking about sheep farming. It is a scandalous situation that we find ourselves in.

3:10 pm

Photo of Carol NolanCarol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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Efforts to develop new international market opportunities for the sheep sector will not be worth the paper they are written on if urgent action is not taken to secure the viability of the sector here at home. One of the explicit goals of Food Vision 2030 is securing market access and diversifying trade and market opportunities at home and abroad for Irish farmers. However, many of the sheep farmers I am engaging with are rapidly losing faith in their capacity to respond to any opportunities that may arise simply because they are struggling to maintain operations from one week to the next. I have met local representatives from the ICSA in Offaly, who are always a pleasure to meet, and they have stressed the urgency of this situation. We have seen farmers protesting outside Leinster House and members of the ICSA were involved in that. We need action. It should not take a protest or individual meetings with Deputies for us to realise that we need to protect a sector worth €400 million in the interest of agriculture and in the economic interests of the country. We must protect this valuable sector.

Unfortunately, farmers are facing a 40% increase in input costs that have landed like a financial grenade within the sector. Irish sheep and lamb are world-class, premium products that are in huge demand and they generate approximately €400 million per annum. The chairman of the ICSA sheep committee, Mr. Sean McNamara, said farmers need to be paid €8.30 per kilogram for lamb in order for them to keep producing. Mr. McNamara was speaking at an ICSA sheep crisis meeting. That meeting was also addressed by Mr. Joe Burke, senior manager of meat and livestock at Bord Bia, Mr. Seamus McMenamin, sector manager of meat and livestock at Bord Bia, and Mr. Oliver Crowe of CC Agricultural Consultants. Mr. McNamara said that it was confirmed by Bord Bia that Brexit disadvantaged the Irish sheep sector and that Irish sheep farmers will face increased competition in Europe from the UK and the southern hemisphere for the remainder of 2023, much like it has done since the Brexit vote. This is why the ICSA is campaigning for a €50 million emergency aid package for sheep farmers, to be funded through the Brexit Adjustment Reserve, BAR. That needs to be done without delay.

Why does it always take a campaign or a fight for these farmers to get the supports they so richly deserve? As I said earlier, it is a no-brainer to protect such a valuable sector. I urge the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to step up to the mark and not fail another agricultural sector.

Photo of Seán Ó FearghaílSeán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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We now move to the Independent Group and Deputy Connolly.

Photo of Catherine ConnollyCatherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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The independent Independents. There are two of us.

Photo of Mattie McGrathMattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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They are totally independent.

Photo of Catherine ConnollyCatherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on this topic, however briefly. I thank Deputy Mattie McGrath and the other Deputies who put pressure on the Dáil Business Committee to put this on the agenda of the House. In the short time available, I would like to zone in on the feasibility study that was done, as referred to earlier by Deputy Carthy. When we asked questions about the very low prices that farmers were getting for their sheep, we were told to wait until the feasibility study was published. That was nine months ago, the length of a pregnancy, but the only thing that has been created as a result of that pregnancy is a wool council, about which we know very little. Where is the wool council at? How many times has it met? What are its terms of reference? I would be grateful if the Minister of State could provide details on that.

In some ways the feasibility study is woolly and difficult to understand, but in other ways it is concise and very well put. It is a funny mixture and reads as if there were different writers involved. The key economic concern for producers, which has been said repeatedly for the last two hours, is that the price being achieved by farmers is less than the cost of shearing. The authors go on to tell us, which is fantastic, that there is a range of possibilities for farmers. After Covid and after we have declared a climate and biodiversity emergency, this is something we should be embracing. This is a wonderful, good news story that should be led by the Government and the Department. The authors tell us of the possibilities for wool in a whole range of areas. Wool is currently classed as a waste product, despite the effort that farmers are putting into it. The authors of the feasibility study recommend that we look at horticulture and the possibilities of composting and pelleting and at construction and the possibilities for insulation, cement and packaging. They also recommended considering wool in the context of filled products such as bedding and mattresses, textiles, composites, medical devices, biotechnology and cosmetics. Then they make very specific recommendations, some of which will be the responsibility of the wool council. These include establishing a wool hull, determining the feasibility of wool testing facility and so on. The report also made a number of other recommendations, one of the most basic one being the collection of data on Irish-grown wool. It also recommended that training be provided on wool handling, presentation, sorting and grading and the creation of an apprenticeship model.

My time has run out so I will hand over to my colleague.

Photo of Michael McNamaraMichael McNamara (Clare, Independent)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue. Obviously sheep prices are at an unsustainable level. It is not really profitable to be engaged in sheep farming at the moment and that needs to change. I heard Deputy Ó Cathasaigh say earlier that we need to work towards developing producer groups and I very much agree with him on that. He cited Connemara lamb as a very good example of how added value can be obtained. Unfortunately, however, with regard to geographical areas of origin, the Department's approach has been quite different in the beef sector. The approach has been to try to develop a national system which effectively hands control over the entire process and any profits that will be obtained from it to the beef processors. That is something I would urge the Department to re-examine with regard to beef and certainly not to do the same in the sheep sector because that is not what the geographical areas of origin were intended to achieve. It does not benefit the producers. The intention of the geographical areas of origin was to benefit producers and consumers but neither benefit from the approach taken with regard to beef.

There is an urgent need to look at the costs of sheep production and to try to meet those on a temporary basis while other measures are taking effect. The IFA has called, not unreasonably, for the Department to consider payments of €30 per ewe rather than the €12 which has been agreed to date. Lamb and sheep prices are currently entirely unsustainable and large tracts of rural Ireland depend on them.

Photo of Michael FitzmauriceMichael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Burke, who is a farmer but it is a scandalous situation that we are making statements on agriculture and not one Minister or Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is here to listen to us.

That shows the importance of it.

There are a few solutions required. First, we know that lamb from Australia and New Zealand has flooded the market. That is because of Covid-19 in China. Brexit has also caused a problem. Funds are accessible for any Government to make sure it can give it to the sheep sector. Sean McNamara and all the different organisations in the sheep sector have made it clear what is required.

There is more to it than that, however. If we leave the sheep farmers in their current situation, they will leave the sector. This is the time of year when everyone talks about Easter lamb. The sad reality is that every lamb that will be killed this week to be made ready for the markets, between the price of meal and the input costs, will die in debt, to be quite frank about it. In the livestock sector, at least the price of cattle went up and the extra costs were somewhat absorbed. In the sheep sector however, the price of lamb collapsed completely. It may have gone up by 10 cent last week, but the market is flooded because of the number of hoggets there are because of what happened in external markets. The Minister needs to intervene in that or we are going to have hoggets and spring lamb, which are the lambs born over recent months, coming together, basically two generations of lambs coming together, which will smother the market completely. The Minister needs to intervene and put a package together to rescue the sheep sector. Otherwise, we will lose that sector.

3:20 pm

Photo of James O'ConnorJames O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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Before we proceed, I want to note that it is my first time in the Chair. I believe that, in the 104 years of Dáil Éireann, I am the youngest male to do so. The youngest female was my constituency colleague, former Deputy Myra Barry. I thank the Ceann Comhairle and Members for this opportunity. I now call the Minister of State for the response.

Photo of Peter BurkePeter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach. Well done on that milestone. I thank all Members for their contributions as well as the regular interactions with all the farm organisations the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, and the Minister of State, Deputy Heydon, have conducted. On behalf of the Government, I want to put their views on the record. As both the Minister and Minister of State have clearly outlined to the House, the Government is committed to supporting our sheep sector and has put in place a range of measures through the new €10 billion CAP, such as ACRES, the sheep improvement sheep and the hugely exciting organic farming scheme. The CAP provides almost €10 billion in supports over the period to 2027 for farm families. As said earlier, sheep farmers are eligible for several other schemes in addition to the sheep improvement scheme, including ACRES and the organics scheme, which are particularly suited to sheep enterprises or mixed beef and sheep enterprises. We as a Government have secured places for 46,000 farmers in ACRES which I am certain will benefit many sheep farmers. There have been a series of factors causing the recent downturn in markets, but we are hopeful that, with the month of Ramadan having begun and with Easter now approaching, we will see the usual seasonal upturn in demand in the marketplace between now and June as lamb production increases. In common with the beef and dairy sectors, the sheep sector is highly reliant on export markets to provide returns for its stakeholders from primary producers onward. As all links in the supply chain are interdependent, all stakeholders must collaborate and co-operate to add value and ensure the sector can survive and thrive in the highly competitive and globalised markets into which they sell product.

Irish sheep meat has been successful in accessing and developing new market opportunities both locally and in international markets. Bord Bia will continue to prioritise sheep meat markets and target segments by continuing to conduct and use trade customer and consumer and market insights, both at company, sector and national level. This work will include enhancing the reputation of Irish sheep meat to reinforce existing retail and food service customer relationships and attract new customers and routes to market. Maintaining and developing existing market access requires an intensive programme of inward and outward government-to-government meetings and technical discussions, as well as utilising the network of Irish embassies throughout the globe. The Minister, Deputy McConalogue, and Minister of State, Deputy Heydon, will redouble their efforts to gain and maintain market access for sheep meat in priority international markets. By keeping primary producers informed of market developments and product requirements in their main export markets, the Department of Agriculture can help them plan their enterprises for the medium term.

In regard to the current challenges facing the sector, I know the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, has asked his officials to continue to monitor developments closely over the next few months and the Government will continue to make every effort to support the sector.