Seanad debates

Wednesday, 8 December 2021

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

 

10:30 am

Photo of Eugene MurphyEugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to return to an issue on which my colleague, Senator Gallagher, had a Commencement matter this morning, for which the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, was in the House. I compliment the Minister, who has been doing a lot of work on this. I refer to the spiralling cost of fertiliser for farmers. While we all want to promote organic fertilisers and ensure we do all this type of work in a more environmentally friendly way, the fact is that farmers cannot produce food without using some nitrogen. I do not know how many people are aware of this, but most fertilisers farmers use have doubled in price since last year, mainly due to global gas prices, which is outside our control. Two of the fertilisers farmers use a lot are calcium ammonium nitrate, CAN, which contains 27% nitrogen, and urea. Both those fertilisers have doubled in price. It is just not possible for many farmers to purchase fertilisers any more. If you take into consideration the fact that 60% of grass growth occurs before the month of May, you can see that the time span here is very short. There is one thing that can be done. There are tariffs on fertilisers imported from outside the EU. We have been looking - I know the Minister has been looking at this as well - at getting those tariffs reduced if at all possible, even for a short period, in order to bring down the price of fertilisers. If the farmers cannot produce the food, in a very short space of time we could find ourselves having food shortages. It is an urgent issue and I ask that the Deputy Leader again contact the Minister expressing my views. I am sure I will have the support of the House on the matter.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.