Michael Comiskey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and thank him for taking the time to come to the House to discuss sustainable agriculture and the dairy price outlook. First, however, I congratulate the Minister on the announcement today of a grant award of over €20 million for agri-food and forestry research. This will go towards 58 scientist posts and 53 postgraduate students in specialised training places. This important investment in research will make a significant contribution to the sustainability and comprehensiveness of the Irish agrifood, forestry and aquaculture sectors.

With regard to sustainable agriculture, let us note that "sustainable" is defined as being able to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It should be considered in everything we do in order to ensure overall growth of the economy and protection of the environment and high quality of life for all the citizens of our country.

Agriculture and forestry have major roles to play in achieving these goals. Ireland has the potential to be a world leader in sustainable farming practices, sustainable forestry management, food production and research as we have a number of natural advantages. According to research by the European Commission, Ireland is among the top five performing member states in the EU in terms of carbon footprint for the livestock sector. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation has found that the temperate grassland production system, such as that in Ireland, is one of the most efficient in the world.

Ireland has already put in place many measures to improve our sustainable levels in agriculture. A low carbon transition plan and a national climate change adaptation framework being prepared under the Climate Action and Low-Carbon Development Bill 2014 will drive the transition to a low carbon, climate resilient, environmentally sustainable economy by 2050. Programmes such as Origin Green are also available. This is a Bord Bia voluntary sustainable programme aimed at demonstrating the commitment of the Irish food and drinks industry to produce in a sustainable manner while meeting increased international demand. Schemes such as GLAS, the agri-environment options scheme, the organic farming action programme plan 2013-15 and the beef data and genomics scheme all promote sustainability in agriculture. I agree with my colleague opposite that GLAS in particular is very important for farmers in the poorer parts of the country in order to sustain their income.

The Common Agricultural Policy has had a substantial involvement in the environmental sustainability of the European agrifood sector in recent years. From 2015, the basic payment scheme will replace the single payment scheme. Under the requirements of the basic payment scheme, farmers are subject to three greening measures - crop diversification, which is applicable to farmers holding more than 30 hectares of arable land; ecological focus areas, which are applicable to farmers with over 15 hectares of land; and the protection of permanent grassland. It has been decided that this measure will be managed at a national level, thus there will be no implication for individual farmers unless national threshold levels are breached. These greening measures will vastly improve the viability of sustainable agriculture in the future. The level of emissions from agriculture has been steadily decreasing in recent years and I am sure the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine will continue to work with State and industry parties to ensure greater future competencies in the sustainable Irish agriculture sector.

In regard to the dairy price cycle, we need to be ready for the abolition of quotas from early next year. The ending of the milk quota regime represents a unique opportunity for the dairy industry to increase milk output and, as a result, the industry has set itself targets under Food Harvest 2020 of increasing milk production by 50% in the period to 2020. However, there are approximately 18,000 dairy farmers across the country, so the price of milk is an extremely prevalent issue. We cannot ignore the recent Teagasc report which predicts that average Irish milk prices in 2015 will fall to 27 cent per litre, a reduction of over 10 cent per litre on the average for 2014. This follows several years of very good incomes on dairy farms. It is likely to have a very serious impact on dairy farming incomes in 2015, with a reduction in excess of 50% possible on some farms. These are very worrying statistics, on which we need to act.

We also see change occurring in the make-up of farms. Several farmers are moving from beef to dairy and this will place even more pressure on the dairy sector. We must acknowledge, however, there are a number of factors outside of everyone's control which are putting negative pressure on the global dairy price at the moment. These include increased output of dairy production in countries such as the USA, New Zealand and Australia, and in the EU generally, due to favourable weather conditions this year, as the Minister mentioned in his statement, thus leaving more milk available on the market.