Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will follow on from some of the previous contributors' comments on the announcement yesterday on the cut in fuel costs, including diesel prices. While it is welcome, it is utterly pointless if we have petrol stations around the country increasing their prices by the amount by which we are reducing them. I have had phone calls from people in Tipperary who saw those increases happen within 24 hours of the suspected announcement and then further changes following the announcement. That really is shameful when people are to the pin of their collar in being able to afford to just travel to work. A great many people in my area in Tipperary drive to Cork, Waterford, Limerick or Kilkenny. They are all an hour away from where I live. People drive every day. The cost of fuel has doubled for them in recent weeks. As a Government, we are trying to do something to help those people, and then, on the back of that, people try to exploit the generosity and support that has been given. It needs to be called out. It is shameful.

I ask the Leader, maybe after next week, to ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to come before the Chamber to outline exactly what he plans to do for tillage farmers. I know he set up a national fodder and food security committee yesterday. He is talking about a multimillion euro package for farmers to encourage them to grow crops. I come from a tillage farm. My family have been tillage farmers for seven or eight generations. We have always been the forgotten side of farming in many ways. I welcome that people are being encouraged to grow more crops. However, if there are packages available for beef farmers and dairy farmers to turn some of their land into crops, that support and that package needs to be there for current tillage farmers who have been doing it for years and who have the capabilities and everything else to do it.

Tillage farmers are often forgotten about. They provide an essential service to this country. If supports are to be put in place, those supports need to be there for the people who have been doing it for years and years. Could we get the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to outline his plans? There was total shock when that was announced a couple of days ago, and we must know how it will be done.He needs to explain to the farmers exactly what supports are going to be there and what finance will be put behind it.