Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Senator raising this issue. We hope that for fertiliser prices, as we hope for a range of commodity prices, there will be a levelling off of some of the contributing price factors next year. Huge challenges still remain. The initiatives the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has outlined will support farmers in reducing their overall dependence on fertiliser use.

The Senator mentioned multispecies grass swards. I fully agree with what he said about farmers being very interested in this. There is a research facility in my constituency, run by Devenish, and over 1,000 farmers have visited it to see the research that is ongoing on this matter. Not only will it make the soil more fertile but there is potential to trap carbon as well, which is something farmers would like to see because that is a challenge facing us all. The Minister and the Department, as well as the Ministers of State, Deputy Heydon and Senator Hackett, will continue to keep a very close eye on this situation and will listen carefully to the proposals the Senator has made.