Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Absolutely. It is virtually impossible and I will not attempt to emulate Senator Norris. I thank the Cathaoirleach for the opportunity and I formally support Senators Gavan and Norris in their comments about the Bedouin village. It is very important to do that.

I ask the Acting Leader to facilitate a debate as soon as possible on Brexit readiness in the agricultural sector. Before getting to the substance, I acknowledge that the Minister, Deputy Creed, has opened new markets and increased direct payments in the last budget. Today we saw Kuwait opened for poultry and Qatar was opened recently for beef, with China opened earlier. He has had great success in opening new markets and direct payments were increased last year. More needs to be done and we should discuss agriculture in this House in the context of Brexit, along with a fodder shortage and pricing difficulties.

We need to restore to pre-2008 levels the single farm payments in areas of natural constraint. This is in what were traditionally known as severely handicapped areas where farmers labour under particular difficulty with respect to soil type, weather conditions and a range of matters that make it difficult to farm and have much higher costs of production. Direct farm payments must be increased in those areas. It is important particularly in the Border context, including in Cavan and Monaghan, as we prepare for Brexit. There is a crisis in the suckler cow area, specifically premia for suckler cows. The Irish Farmers Association held a very well-attended protest about this yesterday in Dublin. We must increase the premia as the numbers of farmers engaging in suckler cow farming are falling dramatically quarter by quarter. This needs to be addressed.

We need a debate on readiness for Brexit in agriculture, as well as how the sector can cope with fodder shortage and pricing issues. There must be an increase in single farm payments in areas of natural constraint and suckler cow premia should also be increased. I hope we can have that debate very soon.