Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)

The question of agriculture needs to be considered in the immediate, medium and long term. I am confident the agriculture industry will prosper in the medium and long term. It will be the engine for the recovery of the economy. There is great potential in the export of Irish food, particularly grass-based food products. The Agri Vision 2020 strategy will be important in that context. It is important for us to defend our ground in the CAP negotiations.

I would like to speak about the state of the agriculture sector at this time. Recent CSO figures confirm that farm incomes have decreased by 30% in the last year, on top of an 11% drop in the previous year. We already knew this because we had heard the stories of the people we represent. Farming families are facing huge hardship. It is a real issue for many. People are having to spend their insurance money and family savings. They are running up bills in local shops and hardware stores. That is how bad the farm income crisis has become.

The suspension of admission to the rural environment protection scheme was a great error on a number of fronts. It is obvious that it was an error in environmental terms. I find it difficult to understand how the Green Party can rest easily in this respect, while making an issue of more trivial matters. It is astonishing. REPS 4 had great merit as a means of getting money back into the economy. It funded many activities in rural economies. It also provided a supplementary income from the European Union. It seems farmers are to be moved from the rural environment protection scheme to the farm assist scheme. Large numbers have moved to the farm assist scheme, which is a shocking problem. On 23 November some 8,681 farmers were receiving farm assist payments and a further 1,771 claims were pending. I suspect that many in the latter category are among those whose REPS payments were suspended. The removal of the farm retirement and installation aid schemes, like the reduction in the disadvantaged area scheme, was also an error.

While we do not object in principle to the imposition of a carbon tax, its application to farm fuel and farm diesel would sound the death knell of the agriculture sector. That is why we are advocating the introduction of a refund scheme for farmers. That will have to be done. My distinguished and erudite colleague, Senator McFadden, will discuss the welfare issues that arise in this context. We also suggest gas and solid fire fuels, in which coal and briquettes are used, should be excluded from this proposal. I emphasise that farm diesel should be excluded from the carbon tax regime.

The Minister will have to address a couple of issues in the beef sector. The Government should take a hands-on approach to the negotiation of a quality payment scheme in beef factories in order that good beef products are rewarded and exports increased. We have developed a significant 54% dependence on the UK market in the last decade. I suggest we target the lucrative markets of mainland Europe. It is shocking that Irish-controlled meat factories in the United Kingdom, in which we have rightly invested €50 million in recent times, are refusing to kill Irish cattle that have been exported. That means they can pay less for Irish cattle here. I ask the Minister of State to comment on what is being done about this specific matter.

Fine Gael has introduced the Food (Fair Trade and Information) Bill 2009 to cope with many of the huge issues associated with the things the multiples are doing wrong. Often farm gate prices do not reflect the cost of production, for example, in the milk sector. Many dairy farmers in my home county are barely meeting the cost of producing milk. I ask for our farmers to be supported in the immediate term in order that the industry will have a long-term future.