Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House for this important debate. I condone his condemnation of the illegal and unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine. This will create trying circumstances for us here in Ireland, in our agricultural community in particular. However, these are mere shadows of the turmoil, the pain and the grief that are being suffered by the Ukrainians. I would like to be associated with the Minister’s remarks in asking for the Russians to leave as soon as possible, without any conditions.

Many people in conversation say that mechanisation and nitrogen have underwritten global population growth when it comes to food security since the Second World War. The fertiliser nitrogen, as well as our diesels and fuels, were already heading for a crisis situation before the invasion. Costs had escalated and this was putting much pressure on our farming community. Many farmers decided, due to cost, to possibly cut back. This was irrespective of whether or not they were in the schemes. They decided to cut back on their fertiliser for the coming year because of the exorbitant costs. They probably even cut back on some of their work. There may have been bits of tillage that were not to be done this year, but that would have been done in previous years. This is because of the price of bringing in contractors, who incur enormous diesel expenses. When we combine that with the invasion and with the situation in Russia and Ukraine at the moment, we are heading towards a serious crisis. Desperate times call for desperate measures and we are in desperate times.

The weather is the one area over which we have no control. This area could have a big say over this situation before the year is out. We are hoping that we will have a good summer, one that is not too dry, and that the harvest and winter coming will not be too bad.

I welcome, as the Minister has outlined in his own statement, the national food and fodder security committee, the soils, nutrients and fertiliser campaign, and the Minister’s rapid response team, which is to be chaired by the Secretary General. I also welcome the fact that he met with the farm organisations and Teagasc early in the crisis. I also welcome his targeted tillage support package and multispecies swards. However, just on that issue, I have a couple of questions and a couple of observations. That money is available to people who plant crops, to those who go into tillage and who have not had tillage previously, or to those who put tillage in fields that have not been ploughed previously or in which there were no tillage crops last year. The Minister outlined the potential for a fodder shortage in the coming year if we do not get this right. I also ask that question from my own perspective as a beef farmer. If I were to consider tillage to help out with the crisis, I would have to plough land from which I took silage in the previous year. Therefore, while that might be providing grain to help the cause, I could and possibly would, leave myself with a fodder shortage, because of the silage I would no longer have. Not many people would have land sitting by that did not have a purpose last year that was being used to meet their own feed requirements.

I would also like to mention the Minister’s results based environment agri pilot programme, REAP. I do not know if he can revisit that at this stage. However, many people signed up land to REAP last year. One of the biggest conditions of the REAP scheme is low input. As we have said when referring to the importance of fertiliser in achieving our targets in feed and fodder, a lower input will possibly mean a lower output. People signed up to that scheme, myself included, last year with no idea of the position we would be in this year. They budgeted for the same. I achieved my own fodder targets. However, if we now have to increase, and I might not have the possibility of being able to get grain next winter, this could in certain ways hinder me going forward.

The biggest issue I have is with diesel costs. The Minister and I have addressed this before and I will address it again. If people who are not accustomed to doing tillage on a regular basis decide to do so, they will have to bring in farm contractors. They do not have the equipment to plough, till, seed or harvest. The farm contractors are crippled at the moment with diesel costs. I welcome that there has been a small reduction in diesel prices, as well as the fact that there are ongoing negotiations to enhance that further through VAT. However, farm contractors have to charge enormous prices at the moment just to break even. This is because of their diesel costs. They have been caught. While farmers themselves can write off a part of their diesel costs in their tax returns, contractors are not in a position to do that.Even at this late stage, I encourage the Minister to consult with the Ministers for Public Expenditure and Reform and Finance to see is support can be provided for farm contractors when it comes to the cost of diesel. A scheme similar to, or better than, the one that has been introduced for hauliers may be possible. There is going to be more demand on contractors if farmers who are not accustomed to doing so will try to do tillage. Many of them do not have the necessary machinery.

The Minister, together with his colleagues in Europe, may have to reconsider the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, going forward. Irrespective of the duration of the war, it will be a long time before everything come back to normal. This crisis may be ongoing for the duration of the next CAP. I do not know whether it would be possible to look at that.

He mentioned horticulture, fruit and vegetables. We have had the debates, and I will not go over them again, about the importation of peat from the Baltic states. That is also an issue. Our horticulture sector, which has been depending on imported peat to meet its needs, will not have access to the same quantities. We need to look for a solution on this island.