Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for attending this debate. I am conscious that the Minister comes from a rural constituency and has a strong background in agriculture. As he represents an agricultural constituency, he is clearly aware of the challenges in agriculture. Wicklow is a diverse county in terms of agriculture. It has a lot of marginal land but there is also very good land in west Wicklow, with which I am particularly familiar.

We all acknowledge that agriculture is enormously affected by its vulnerability to the weather. That is a factor which we must take into account. I have brought forward a number of Commencement matters in this House regarding a meal or fodder allowance and other interventions, and only a few weeks ago the Minister told us there is loads of fodder in the country, that it is a commodity and people are holding onto it, so it has become valuable and expensive. That is what he told the House, but the reality is that there are difficulties. To summarise, we are talking about farmers' welfare, animal welfare and family farm income. It boils down to that so let us keep the language simple about what resonates with farmers. It is about putting a loaf on the table every week and the family farm income. We must not lose sight of that. The hardship of the weather has had a real impact on those people.

I raised the issue of GLAS payments and the deadlines that were required for soil testing and soil cores. I told the Minister about farms in Tuam where cattle have been kept in sheds since September and they are still in them this week, up to their oxters in dirt and muck. The farms are in muck. The farmers have been told they are not going to get their GLAS payments because they have not filed their soil bores. One cannot carry out a proper soil analysis from a soil bore in marginal land that has been swamped for nine months. There must be flexibility to deal with this issue.

I thank Fianna Fáil for taking the opportunity of its Private Members' time to bring this important issue before the House for discussion. To focus on the motion, it has set out nine key actions which it calls on the Government to do. The first is to set up a hardship fund to help small to medium-sized farms, the second is to introduce a meal voucher scheme for farmers affected by the weather and the third is to make low cost credit available to farmers to help them pay the costs of sourcing fodder. The fourth action is to deal with the GLAS payment issues and the sheep welfare scheme, the fifth is to dedicate a budget to the Department's early warning scheme, EWS, and there is much merit in that, the sixth is to establish a special standing committee to monitor and report to the Department on the supplies of fodder, to keep supplies moving and to have data in that regard and the seventh is to halt temporarily all cross-compliance inspections on farms as well as Bord Bia farm audits. I have an issue with that. This is about quality and standards, even though we must acknowledge the severity of the weather and its impact. The eighth action is the inclusion of a permanent scheme in the RDP to compensate farmers for losses.

I cannot see the Minister objecting to any of that. I realise that he is constrained by resources and so forth, but these are tough times and there is a crisis. The proposals are worthy of support and need to be addressed. I am conscious that the Minister represents these farmers. He is not an urban Minister but is in the heart of agriculture, as is the Minister of State in the Department. Some type of action plan is required. This debate is timely and these are concrete proposals. I will be interested to hear how the Minister responds to them.

I wish to take this opportunity to welcome the good news in the Minister, Deputy Creed's, announcement that, at last, Ireland has been granted access to the Chinese meat market. That is an enormous achievement. We cannot underestimate it. I also acknowledge the work of Bord Bia in opening markets. We regularly talk about Food Wise 2025, the Bord Bia strategy for agriculture and horticulture and the expectations in that regard. It has to be a win-win situation for agriculture. Farmers are diversifying and they are going into organic production, but they need support to do that. In acknowledging the work of Bord Bia, I also acknowledge the very significant funding the Government gives that body. It has a good big budget. I received a copy of the top ten trade destinations for agrifood which was produced by the Department. I will not go into the figures but they are the United Kingdom, United States, China-Hong Kong, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Spain and Poland. I could go on to name the top 20, which include the United Arab Emirates.

We have also seen the opening of markets for live exports of cattle. These are always controversial, but this is about the economy, business and scale. There is much good news in agriculture. It is due to diversification and meeting the challenges. It is also about having Government support. There is a really good news story about agriculture. I am also conscious of the national planning framework and what that envisages for agricultural communities in terms of other soft options and other ways of diversifying in agriculture to sustain rural communities, which is critical. However, I know too well the other side of coin. I have family members in the Glen of Aherlow who are considering getting out of farming or leasing their farms. I have family members in Kildare who are struggling on good land. There are challenges. One needs large scale and quality of scale to make farming produce an income that will sustain a family.I will conclude by stating that what Fianna Fáil is proposing is reasonable and timely. A positive response from the Government on this issue is long overdue. We must remember that it all boils down to farmers' welfare, animal welfare and family farm incomes. We need to work together collectively to sustain those incomes.