Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are indeed.

I welcome the Minister to the House for this debate. I note that a Private Members' motion on this issue was debated in the other House last night and the night before. It is an issue of national importance, not least because the food industry is so important to the country. Its importance also is due to the introduction of animal welfare legislation through both Houses of the Oireachtas - it is due to return to this Chamber shortly - and all Members have subscribed to that. I am sure the Minister will agree this is an animal welfare issue. I note that 26% more animals have died in the first three months of this year as a result of the lack of fodder or food and this is a national issue that requires Government intervention and attention. Whatever resources are required must be made available. This is not something that happened overnight because as the Minister correctly pointed out, there were difficulties last summer. At the back end of last year, when it was very wet, farmers experienced difficulty in saving hay and silage and as a result, the plenitude of supply that may have existed in previous years was not there. People were aware this issue would arise and we have now reached a position at which, while approaching the middle of May, there is an absolute lack of grass. Cattle are still indoors and the problem appears to be in that part of the country west of a line from Waterford to Donegal. While it may not be as prevalent in the north-west as in the southern part of the country, nevertheless significant problems also have arisen on certain farms in my native County Donegal, where lots of hay and silage has been imported, some from the North of Ireland, to deal with the problem.

This is imposing a huge financial cost on farmers. Farmers are already against the wall on foot of increases in fertiliser prices - I acknowledge it is possible that not as much fertiliser has been bought because the land is unable to take it - fuel prices and fodder prices. The fodder price may not be as high in County Donegal as it is in the Minister's native county of Cork but when Senator O'Donovan raised this issue three or four weeks ago, it was hitting €80 per bale there for a round bale of silage, which is a huge amount of money. Farmers have had their backs to the wall and anecdotally, I have met people who have told me that farmers were on the verge of suicide and that a number of them actually did commit suicide. I am aware of one or two cases in County Donegal in which this actually happened. As a result of their inability to feed their animals - they felt they could not approach the community welfare officer or anyone else to seek the money - they took their own lives. It is very sad that this happened but it is important to acknowledge today that it did happen. While no direct evidence exists to link it, anecdotally it is something I have been told. While animals have been lost, human lives also have been affected by this issue. Whatever money is required must be made available.

At present, some farmers are on the financial cusp. The farm assist scheme has been targeted in a highly detrimental fashion by the Minister for Social Protection. It is disgraceful that a small amount of money to keep people on the land has been reduced because of the 100% means testing of the scheme and I believe, even at this late stage, this should be reconsidered. I appeal to the Minister to ask the Minister for Social Protection to have a further rethink of this measure because farmers who may have been in receipt of €50, €60 or €70 per week are now receiving nothing and as a result, they are left in the position of potentially costing the State more money because they may be obliged to leave the farm and switch to unemployment benefit. In such circumstances, they might cost the State perhaps three times what they were receiving under the farm assist scheme. This makes no logical sense to the State coffers and this issue should be reconsidered.

The Minister has mentioned payment.

There are ways to deal with this and I welcome the fact the Minister has given a commitment that he will extend the fodder scheme by a week. The Minister has clarified why he said he is looking at this on a week by week basis and stated that co-operatives must have material in with the Department tomorrow evening. In addition, the DAS, AEOS and REPS payments were mentioned. Those must be issued by the Department and the appeals that have been held up in the Department must be expedited. I appeal to the Minister to look at single farm payments as well. Can a percentage of those payments due in September be paid now? For the next month there should be inspections. We will still be in compliance with the 5% figure but the inspections should take place in the other 11 months of this year. For the next month, there should be no inspections. That could be done as long as the national year end figures add up to 5%.

There will be a big problem this year where farmers must now put stock on grass. There will be a lack of silage and hay available for next winter because of the lack of grass at the moment. What steps is the Minister taking to deal with that issue?