Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for being here. I pay tribute to him for the manner in which he has handled this matter and the courage he has shown in every county throughout the country, where he has met the grassroots and farmers in rural communities and listened to them. I was at one or two of those meetings. While 90% of the people present were excellent and there were hard debates, the Minister did take some abuse. In general, it has been accepted that he is doing an excellent job. He has taken a lot of the anger out of this entire debate. What he has done is go into communities and explain. He has a fantastic hold of his brief and that will stand to him. My family has been involved in agriculture, and I have been involved in horticulture in the past. I look forward to engaging with the Minister.

Sometimes when we listen, we learn a lot. The Minister went around and he listened. I have seen him at some of those engagements on his feet for three and a half hours. There is a consensus, even among people who might not otherwise agree with the Minister politically, that the manner in which he has handled this was productive in terms of allowing people to ask questions. He allowed them to vent their anger, and that happened, but in doing that he said something new to Irish farming that has not happened for a number of years. The Minister stated that he is here to listen and to work and engage with farmers. We all know that if you do not engage with people, you do not succeed. We must acknowledge that we have a challenge. It does not matter who will be in power here in the years ahead, there will be the challenge of climate change. We must work with many other groups and all other sectors to ensure that at the end of the day we do what is necessary. I fear if we do not do that, in the long run the consequences for agriculture and rural communities will be great.

When I talk to many farmers one to one, they want to engage and to do the right thing environmentally. If we can come up with solutions to reduce nitrogen use and find alternatives such as pilot schemes that support farmers, they will work with that. There is a very interesting debate currently on the growing of clover. An increasing number of farmers are experimenting with this and they find it is working. I am not saying that we can completely reduce the use of nitrogen and other fertilisers, but we can cut it down and we can deal with the run-off from it. I say this as someone who is very pro rural communities, agriculture and horticulture. We must do that.

If I understand Bord Bia's analysis correctly, we are exporting food and drink to approximately 180 countries. Even with Brexit, those exports increased by about 4% last year. The dairy sector alone was worth €5 billion in 2021. The meat and livestock sector was worth €3.5 billion in exports. Not alone is it trying to sustain agricultural communities, but behind all of that there are thousands of people employed in all of this business. What the Minister is trying to do, which we have to do, is protect agriculture, horticulture and jobs. If we do not make some of the changes that are absolutely necessary, we will lose many of those jobs.

Much of what the Minister has been proposing to farmers on CAP and the expansion of the agricultural schemes remains to be fully decided on. It is very important to give options to farmers. I have discussed this with farmers. If they have six, seven or eight options to improve environmental standards on their farm, they will do it. They must also accept that it must be sustainable. In all honesty, some farmers in the past ten years have said to me that they have been carrying too much stock for the type of land they have. It may mean people reducing livestock numbers by five or ten. That might make all the difference. In some cases, it might be far more sustainable for the farmers involved.

I want to comment on the horticultural industry. There is substantial money involved in that industry. Perhaps we should pilot more horticultural schemes because we are still importing a huge amount of fruit and vegetables that used to be successfully grown in this country. I accept that the cost factor for farmers and horticulturists is one of the challenges. It does not pay to produce here. We should consider giving further supports and aid to those farmers. I read recently that we spent up to €100 million importing cooking apples into this country in 2020 or 2021. Many apples come from the south of France. Ireland has one of the best climates in the world for producing cooking apples. We should have pilot schemes for farmers who would like to diversify and convert two acres into an orchard. Years ago, there were orchards everywhere. Even small farms had ten, 12, 15 or 20 trees. Everybody had their own fruit. There is a market for that here in Ireland. That is just one issue. There are many other aspects of the horticulture business that I could mention and much that we could do, but I will not go into it all here today because I accept there is a cost factor involved.

I wish the Minister well. There are a lot of challenges. I will come up with ideas for him and I will be supportive of him. The challenge can be met. We can make agriculture very sustainable. It will be in all our interests to push forward with a plan that we can get the majority of farmers to accept. I accept that there will be hard decisions and that it will not suit everybody, but for the sake of the industry overall, we are on the right road. I compliment the Minister on what he has done and the way he has engaged. That engagement is so important for the future.