Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Following on from yesterday's budget statement, which was positive in many respects, I want to focus on the speech by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, and his unique take on low-cost finance for farmers. It was a major step forward for the agricultural community that, through the good work of the Minister, €150 million has been made available for low-cost finance. Loans from the scheme to provide working capital for the agriculture sector will have a low interest rate of 2.95%, a positive development.

We have been looking for this for a long time. We have been on about the interest rate issue and our pillar banks. In Austria, farmers can get finance with an interest rate of 2%, but in Ireland one can pay anything up to 8%. The Minister has stepped into the market, making €150 million available in low-cost finance at 2.95%. This is an important day and has the ability to put cashflow and working capital back into this industry. That is what it required. Grain and dairy farmers have been looking for working capital for the past 12 months. We have a unique opportunity with this scheme. I encourage everyone in the agricultural sector to get involved in the scheme because it has the potential to lift us out of this crisis and, hopefully, put us on a footing to go forward. The agriculture industry has the ability to repay and become a major driver in the economy.