Pat Moylan (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and Food, Deputy Brendan Smith, to the House, on this his first occasion to attend Private Members' business. I compliment him and the Minister for Agriculture and Food on their excellent work.

Valid points have been made by speakers in support of the amendment. From meeting farmers involved in beet production, I have learned of their concerns about transport arrangements and costs. The Greencore decision to close its Carlow plant will disadvantage many farmers, many of whom are successful and efficient beet growers, in the midland counties of Offaly, Laois and Carlow. Their concerns are justified, particularly as the decision was taken quickly. Many farmers accept that if the decision had been delayed for another year, it would have given them the opportunity to decide whether to stay in beet production and make proper transport arrangements for their produce to the Mallow plant. I am concerned that the rail facilities for transporting beet are not up to speed. In an article in the farming section of the Irish Independent, the chairman of Carlow County Council claimed the proposed facility in Bagenalstown would not be in place in the next 12 months. In its absence, a situation would arise whereby a significant amount of extra beet would have to be transported by road. One would probably arrive at a situation in Mallow where there would be queues of lorries for miles and miles, causing road blocks and so on. People involved in the transport business calculate that they will travel from A to B, for which there is a particular charge. If they travel to Mallow and spend two or three hours at the side of a road waiting to unload the beet, who will pay for this? I have no doubt it will be the farmers. We must take this aspect into consideration.

I urge Greencore to consider postponing its decision for at least 12 months until the infrastructure is in place to ensure farmers will be in a position to deliver the beet to Mallow when the time comes. An investment in the region of €25 million will be required in Mallow to deal with the extra beet delivered there. Some €25 million will not be spent very quickly in the development of a factory. Someone said to me that Greencore might spend a large proportion of that money on remunerating some of the directors. Perhaps the less said about that, the better. I understand it is a commercial decision on the part of Greencore. Before making a decision, Greencore should take on board the views of the people who have been loyal to the company over a number of years. It is accepted by many beet growers that, given some time, they will put facilities in place to enable them to transport their beet to Mallow.

Another point that should be made is that beet growers have done reasonably well over the years. This group of farmers were in a position to lease land and pay a reasonably good price for it. If they are taken out of the picture, many farmers in the midlands with reasonably good land will lose out financially because beet growers will not be in a position to lease the land for 11 months. This is something of which we should not lose sight because many of these people need that extra money. Many people who let their land over a number of years will not be in a position to benefit from any payments that may apply in this case. The Minister outlined that she made it clear during discussions on beet production in the Council of Ministers that the EU proposals are unacceptable. This will be another fight for the Minister who must ensure that farmers are allowed to make a reasonable living from the land, particularly from beet growing.

A number of farmers indicated that people who were good at beet growing and who moved with the times made a reasonable living from it. Beet growers also had an opportunity to make extra money by allowing farmers involved in the sheep meat business to feed the beet tops to their sheep. This will be a loss to people who budgeted on taking X number of acres of beet tops.

The loss of employment in Carlow, which is a fairly large town, will be severe. It is a huge loss to any town to lose a couple of hundred jobs, including a number of part-time jobs. If farmers change their production methods and fewer farmers produce beet, it will mean a loss in employment. Contractors involved in the harvesting of beet employed many people, whether part time or full time, in seasonal work. Commercial companies make difficult decisions and move on. Given what we read, the board members are better looked after than many. However, they should consider extending the deadline by at least one year. This would give farmers, particularly farmers in the midland region, an opportunity to make alternative transport arrangements to transport their beet to Mallow.