Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail)

-----and if they borrowed money the farmers paid it back. There is no question but that they should be prioritised for additional credit in these times.

Before leaving the topic of the flooding I want to tell a story about it because it is receding from the headlines already and with the budget I am sure it will not be spoken about for a while to come. We had an experience in north Kerry, where I come from, in the early 1960s. An independent TD in my town, Paddy Finucane, was the Jackie Healy-Rae of his day because his support was very important for the then minority Government of Seán Lemass. He was able to land fairly big projects but the biggest one he landed was the Cashen and Feale drainage scheme, which was put in place in the early 1960s. That was a huge success and it restored hundreds of acres to gainful farming but as the years passed the essential monitoring and remedial works that should have been done were not carried out and as a result, ten years ago we were back to square one. However, as a result of a great deal of pressure from politicians, including me, we got approval for a smaller remedial scheme and that stood to the farmers of north Kerry in recent weeks. I am aware there was extensive flooding in the Minister's county and throughout the west but Kerry escaped the worst of it. There must be ongoing monitoring of the schemes put in place, even the new schemes. They cannot be put in and walked away from. They have to be constantly maintained and improved, but that is a debate for another day.

A major issue is the question of farm prices and the under-pricing of farm product. Despite all our protest and the best the Minister has been able to do, the Tescos and the multinationals are still calling the shots when it comes to what the farmer gets for his product and in many cases he is not getting as much for his product as it costs him to produce it. Something will have to be done about that and it deserves a separate debate because it is one of the issues affecting farmers, particularly now with the differential in sterling which has made it an even more critical issue for farmers.

I welcome the good work the Minister has done with his counterparts in Europe in securing a €300 million dairy fund, which will go some way towards alleviating this pricing problem. I forgot to mention the fast forwarding of the single farm payment, which is a huge achievement for the Minister. More than 70% of them have been paid, which is unprecedented, and the balance will be paid shortly. I welcome the reference in the Minster's contribution to ensuring that the butter and milk products in intervention will be released in a controlled manner to ensure they will not flood the market.

There has been some small recovery in milk prices recently but beef prices are still down. Beef is clearly an expensive product and Irish beef, because of its high quality, has always been top rated and top priced. In these recessionary times people all over Europe are starting to consider the cheaper options, and that is something we will have to consider as well.

We are talking about a non-quota situation after 2015. That will be a monumental change. We have been living in an era of quotas for the past 30 years and it will be a huge change when they are gone. I hope Teagasc and the Department will help prepare farmers for that eventuality.

Food quality has always been our strong point in Ireland. We proved that when the pork crisis arose recently. The response by the Government and the entire country was speedy and successful.

I compliment the Minister of State, Deputy Sargent, and I endorse everything Senator de Búrca said about the initiatives he has taken on organic foods, farmers' markets, labelling and the other initiatives which are driving Irish quality and giving us the reputation we deserve.

The Minister is to be commended on the release of cheese for the poor at this time of the year. I appeal to Irish housewives and everybody to buy Irish products this Christmas. They are better than any others. I ask them to be patriotic and to buy Irish.