Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As far back as late November, I raised the plight of the cereal and grain farmers in the west who suffered tremendous losses last year due to the severe inclement weather. There was a lot of crop lost on a strip of the west coast. This issue was raised not only by me, but by several others on numerous occasions both in this House and in the Dáil. There is agreement in theory and I believe there is money available to compensate these farmers. As late as yesterday, the farmers representative bodies met with departmental officials as to how the money will be paid out in compensation. Following that meeting, the farmers were extremely frustrated because no progress was made and they are no closer to a decision on how, when, how much and to whom the money will be paid. What seems to have developed is a scenario of "live horse, and you'll get grass".

We are in the planting season. The farmers who were most severely hit last year do not have the cash flow to purchase fertiliser, seed or in some cases the diesel for their tractors to plant this year's crops because they have had absolutely no income from last year's crops. In order for those farmers to survive and have a harvest in the 2017, they need this money now. It will be no good to them in two, three, four or six months time. They will have gone out of business. I plead with the Leader to use his influence with the Minister to progress this process. To repeat, in theory the money has been agreed and is there, but there seems to be major confusion as to how it will be paid out. It is "live horse, get grass" for many of those farmers at present.