Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his statement and welcome him to the House. Fianna Fáil is committed to protecting and developing agriculture for the 140,000 farming families in Ireland who are the main driver of the rural economy and the custodians of the Irish countryside. We believe in the family farm model of agriculture that puts environmentally and socially sustainable farming at its heart. Fine Gael has undermined that model by reducing the budget for Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, payments, introducing a disproportionate penalties regime, delaying payments, operating highly bureaucratic schemes and repeatedly presiding over annual underspends in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, for example, an underspend of €78 million in 2017.

The agrifood sector supports 300,000 jobs in rural communities and is the largest indigenous industry in Ireland, with food and drink exports reaching €13.5 billion in 2017. When in government, Fianna Fáil introduced the visionary Food Harvest 2020 strategy for the period 2010 to 2020. Food Wise 2025 has been generally welcomed by industry, but its ultimate litmus test will be if it delivers fair prices and profit levels for farmers on the ground. Currently, Irish farmers are being crippled by low prices, market volatility, labour shortages, bad weather and a lack of competition in some sectors. Combined with that, stark challenges remain on the international front, including the EU trade talks with South American beef producer nations and the UK exit from the EU, in addition to having to meet our climate change responsibilities.

The European Commission has published a communication, The Future of Farming and Food, with a view to orientating future CAP policy post 2020. Some of the major suggestions include lowering the ceiling on basic payments and shifting to member state level the design and delivery of some CAP measures. Fianna Fáil has put forward a clear set of proposals for future CAP reform. They include working for a fully funded, fair, and simpler CAP that safeguards direct payments, ensures policy is aimed at increasing farm profitability and strengthens the position of the primary producer. We also wish to introduce a maximum basic payment of €60,000 and fair farm inspections with an end to disproportionate penalties. We want to safeguard farmers and Irish agriculture from the impact of Brexit and incentivise generational renewal in farm families. We still support and push for a farm payment of €200 per suckler cow.

At the best of times farmers experience severe cashflow problems and they are finding it incredibly difficult to secure credit from banks to use for on-farm investment. Budget 2018 created a €300 million low-cost loan fund for SMEs via the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, SBCI, and a further €25 million was allocated in budget 2018 for the development of further Brexit response loan schemes for farmers, fishermen and food businesses. Further SBCI and European Investment Bank funds need to be deployed to safeguard the agrifood sector as it is the sector most exposed to Brexit. Fianna Fáil believes that the SBCI should also be permitted to lend directly to farmers and rural enterprises.

The areas of natural constraint, ANC, scheme is a vital source of income for nearly 100,000 farmers that injects €225 million directly into rural communities. Fianna Fáil successfully campaigned to get agreement from Government for €25 million in additional ANC funding in budget 2018. It is vital that increased ANC payments go to those on the most disadvantaged land. Restoring ANC payments to 2007 levels remains a key Fianna Fáil policy.