Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise an issue that has emerged over the past few days. It concerns fodder on Irish farms. In particular, it has been raised over the past few months with regard to the north and west. With the long winter and exceptionally wet and turbulent weather conditions, there has been very poor grass growth and stocks of fodder have decreased dramatically over the past few weeks. Since 2013, which was the last time there was a fodder crisis, there are roughly 300,000 extra cows in Ireland. We have depleting stocks of fodder and large numbers of animals to feed. As this week has proved, the weather has been exceptionally unkind to us. The growth levels are not there at the moment. Teagasc is saying that we are at 25% of where we should be regarding grass growth so there is a genuine concern in the industry about the next few weeks. In 2013, we put a fodder crisis fund in place to bring fodder in from abroad. It was the first time it ever happened in this State. We need to look at that option again. We need to look at the possibility of bringing in fodder, although perhaps not from the UK, which has limited fodder levels as it is facing the same weather conditions. However, we could bring it in from France from where we imported 300,000 tonnes of haylage in 2013. It is a really stressful issue for farmers, who do not know where to go.

There is a huge issue with the weather. The climate has turned against us and the depletion of these vast amounts of silage bales in the past few weeks has put farmers under exceptional stress. Perhaps we need to start planning for the unfortunate event that took place in 2013. We need to put in place, or talk about putting in place, a scheme. I have been hearing from hauliers and have been talking to farming organisations. The cost of bringing in one load of stuff from the UK is between €1,200 and €1,300. If that is the cost, it is unsustainable. It just cannot work. The only way it can work is if the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine helps supplement the cost, as it did in 2013. It is a big issue out there and I hope the Leader of the House might in his wisdom raise the issue with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine because we need to start planning. If we fail to plan, we could be stuck in the situation we had in 2013 when we brought in the feed in May, which was a bit too late.