Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Ar dtús, ba mhaith liom fáilte a chur roimh an Aire go dtí an Teach agus gabhaim buíochas leis as a bheith anseo mar tá a fhios agam go bhfuil sé faoi bhrú mar go bhfuil a lán oibre le déanamh aige. The Minister is very welcome to the House this morning. The Minister knows, and he does not need me to tell him, that every farmer in the country is speaking about the price of fertiliser. It has gone through the roof. Recent figures I have seen show the price of urea has risen almost 80% in the past year. The average price of all fertilisers has risen by 72%. According to the World Bank, unfortunately, this is a trend that is set to continue. This is very bad and worrying news for the farming community. When coupled with a recent Teagasc report that predicts that farm incomes are set to decline by an average of 19% next year in all sectors, it is a worrying and troublesome time for the farming community. As we all know, what is bad news for the farmer is ultimately bad news for the consumer because the results of this will be higher food prices. This is something that affects us all.

We are told the reason for this is the increasing price of natural gas throughout Europe. Recently, I saw statistics that in the past year, the price of natural gas throughout Europe has risen by 441%. This is a crazy figure. This will be a serious problem for farmers. In the meantime, it will also be a serious problem for the importers and suppliers of fertiliser to the farmers. They will have difficulty in trying to source it. If they do source it, the cost they will incur by importing it will have serious implications for them holding this type of funding. A potential solution would have to involve the banks, as well as the farming community. There is another solution that has been talked about, which is temporary. The EU could set aside the anti-dumping charge on fertilisers, which we import from Trinidad and Tobago, the US and Russia, and perhaps that would result in an easement as well. The Minister has been proactive in this case and he wrote to the EU some time ago looking to see what can be done. We need a short-term solution. Perhaps a more long-term solution could be found in a county such as the one in which I reside. As the Minister will be aware, County Monaghan has a strong tradition of food production the mushroom, poultry and pig sectors. The waste that those plants generate currently cost farmers between €15 and €16 per tonne to remove from their sites. Perhaps if that particular product was dried, turned into pellets and some value added then that could be the future of fertiliser not just for ourselves in this country but for export. One would imagine that option would be a much more environmentally friendly solution or substitute for fertiliser in the long run. We should explore that option and I am interested in the Minister's comments on how we can explore the possibility of using the waste while solving a problem for the farming community.