Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and what he has had to say and commend him on his good work. I was very glad to hear him refer to the hidden hunger of nutrient deficiency and the challenge of feeding so many people in the world today. These are people who do not have enough to eat.

With 170 million children under the age of five in the world today chronically malnourished, it is appropriate that I take this opportunity to mention to the Minister one of the organisations seeking to address this. This organisation is being honoured in Leinster House tomorrow. Mary's Meals provides, in a school setting, 920,000 meals to children in 13 countries across five continents daily. The Ceann Comhairle will present Mary's Meals and its founder, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, with the inaugural human dignity award tomorrow. The Minister will be very welcome at this event. It is appropriate that we note this and that we commend the work of so many good people, in Ireland and further afield, who are working hard to address world hunger and, in particular, the nutritional deficiency that blights so many young lives.

In addition to the appropriate statements on sustainability, it is important that we reflect on the challenges facing Irish farming at home. The Minister is to be congratulated on the hard work that he and his officials put into the new Common Agricultural Policy agreement. However, I wish to briefly address some of the issues facing the family farm. This is the UN International Year of Family Farming. In the 1971 census, 25% of households in Ireland were headed-up by a farmer. In 2011, the figure was roughly 6%. That change reflects the massive decline in the number of farm households over that time period. There has been a substantial increase in the non-farm population. Nonetheless, farms and farm households remain central to our rural and national economies and, more broadly, our rural society.

A recent Teagasc report deals with the variety of problems facing such farms into the future. These include challenges from the globalisation of food supply chains, national and international policy developments, the end of the milk quota and climate change. The policy and economic changes ushered in by the ending of milk quotas, difficulty in obtaining credit and the drive towards bigger farms may lead to the end of medium-sized family farms and smaller farms and to the rise of the large industrial-type farming we see in the UK. This is something I do not wish to see happening.

The dairy sector, from which many of our family farms draw their main income, is by a number of measures our largest indigenous industry. It has exports valued at €3 billion or thereabouts if one takes into account the breakdown between animal, meat and dairy exports. The impact of the departure of the quotas on Ireland's dairy sector and its agri-economy will be dramatic. It is remarkable to notice the difference between dairy production in Ireland and in New Zealand where there is also a grass-based dairy system. Ireland's dairy production in 2013 was about 5.4 billion litres. This is roughly the same as it was in 1974. By contrast, in New Zealand it grew massively.

The growth in milk production will create massive opportunities for some farmers and for large companies and multinationals. This is to be welcomed and I congratulate the Minister on what he has been doing on foreign investment missions to the US, China, Japan and so on. However, let us not lose sight of the family farm. A large expansion is not going to be possible for everyone. Investment in new land and milking equipment is difficult for smaller farmers, and where there is an ongoing volatility in the price of milk it is going to be even harder. There is a real question surrounding profitability for smaller farms. I am worried this may be leading to an expand or die scenario, where large landowners with financial clout will ramp up production. I ask the Government to prioritise the continuing sustainability of small family farms.