Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the establishment of the national fodder and food security committee. I invite the Minister and Ministers of State from that Department to come to the House once we return after the St Patrick's Day break. I understand from the Minister of State at the Department, Deputy Heydon, that we can expect to see a package of supports being prepared for farmers and finalised by the end of this month. The farming community is under enormous pressure. We know the important role farmers have in ensuring we have sufficient food. We know that the pressure the atrocities in Ukraine is having and will have on food supply particularly relating to grain. The Ministers met farm organisations on Monday. There have been meetings throughout the week with feed, fertiliser and fuel importers. These are the areas that have seen the most significant price rises. We need to incentivise greater use of certain forage crops. Obviously, farmers will face significant cash flow pressures. We need to look at options for flexibility with farm payments as well as working with our EU colleagues on a common European response. We also need to look at issues such as intervention or aid to private storage for the pig sector to reduce supply to the market as pig producers, along with the poultry sector, have been the most significantly affected sector. At this stage we do not have an issue with food or feed security, but we need to ensure we do not have one in the autumn and winter. Preparing for that is very important. Teagasc will have a key role in that committee.

I welcome the supports announced by Government yesterday. Clearly, they have been gobbled up quickly by what in my view was price gouging at petrol stations. While there are pressures relating to the cost of importing fuel, it is a bit of a coincidence that fuel prices were increasing at petrol stations by 10 cent, 15 cent and 20 cent in certain outlets. As I said to the Minister yesterday, there will be no thanks for this package because it has been gobbled up so quickly. However, it is still important and is reducing the excise duty on fuel by one third, 20 cent for petrol and 15 cent for diesel. There is also a 2 cent reduction in the excise on agricultural fuel. That is 2 cent out of 4.7 cent, which is a reduction of more than 40% in the excise duty on green diesel.

We need to acknowledge that we cannot do everything in respect of wholesale prices. We are an importer and a price taker when purchasing fuels. I acknowledge the decisions made by the Government. I know from the Minister that the Government will be keeping this under review in coming weeks and working with our European colleagues in respect of what changes are necessary regarding VAT and other areas to ensure we provide additional supports for important sectors, the hard-pressed homeowners who rely on their cars, the haulage industry and the agriculture sector.