Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Based on the release today of the Irish importation figures for grain and maize, I was startled to see that wheat imports in 2018 were up 40% to 428,000 tonnes, maize imports were up 43% to 1.6 million tonnes and barley imports were up 105% to 372,000 tonnes. The Deputy Leader will be aware the Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine last year produced a report on the crisis within the Irish tillage sector. That report was placed before this House but, unfortunately, like many of its predecessors, it has found its way to the infamous shelf somewhere. Based on the figures I have given today, that report needs to be taken down from the shelf and brought back in here, and the Minister needs to come in along with it to address these figures.

As I said, we have a crisis in the tillage sector and farmers are walking away from tillage and grain production, yet we are importing grain in the quantities I have just mentioned. The big debate within all sectors of agriculture at the moment is on climate change. Can we imagine the carbon footprint of this grain, maize and wheat that is coming from as far away as Russia to our shores? We have the people, the equipment and the land, and we are quite capable of producing it here ourselves. The irony in regard to barley, in particular, is that it is being imported in such vast quantities, it is being brewed and distilled by our native brewers and distillers, then being labelled on bottles as Irish and exported again. We need to re-address the crisis in the tillage sector. We need to take down that report from its infamous shelf and we need to get it and the Minister back in the House to have a serious debate on why we are not producing this grain ourselves, and not making it feasible for Irish farmers to produce the grain and maize we are importing in such large quantities.