Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senators Kieran O'Donnell and Hopkins raised the plight of the farming community, but there is a major issue with grain growers and the grain sector. The grain sector in Ireland is on the verge of failing and ceasing to exist because of a fourth year of bad weather, bad prices and bad volume. We are looking at a situation, from Cork to Donegal, where grain has not been harvested, prices are as low as €135 a tonne and moisture content is anything up to 30%. It is a massive issue for everyone involved in the agricultural sector. We cannot let this sector slip through our fingers, as it were. We must act. A package of €11.2 million has been put in place for the livestock sector this year, but there has not been one for the grain sector. It is one of the issues on which we need to talk to the Minister. He should come to the House to discuss this issue because we need to go to Europe to get an aid package for the grain farmers and for the grain sector. I met grain farmers from all over west Cork last weekend, from Kilbrittain and Ballinascarty all the way to Roberts Cove, and the story is the same. They are at the end of their tether and they need assistance. I hope the Minister will go to Europe and that we will get an aid package because without that I do not see this sector existing, and it would be an awful shame.