Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairperson, Senator Cassells, and the many Senators who contributed to the discussion today including Senators Paul Daly, Boyhan, Lombard, Pauline O'Reilly, Boylan, McGreehan, Doherty, Murphy, Kyne and Ahearn. Many contributions showed a strong commitment to the sheep sector and many good suggestions were made. One of the lessons I will be taking away is that the next time I am on a train and Senator Murphy is there, he certainly has a good memory. He remembered Sean McNamara, the ICSA sheep chairman and president for next year. He knows almost better than Mr. McNamara knows himself how many sheep and hoggets he has. It is highly impressive. I acknowledge the presence here today of the IFA and ICSA, the representatives of the farming organisations who have been strong advocates in the past weeks and short number of months about the challenge the sheep sector has been facing.

It was without doubt a challenging winter. Fortunately, the past two, three or four years have been decent or good years for sheep. Prices have been much strong than they were historically. That was welcome. I grew up on a sheep and suckler farm. It has been a suckler farm for the past few years but it was a sheep farm for the vast majority of the time I was growing up on it. I remember drafting lambs every week. I remember the prices and losing money on them and how challenging it was. It was good to see in recent years that the prices had once again become stronger. However, recent months and especially last winter were challenging. The increased cost of grain coincided with the fact that we saw a reduction in the price, which meant it was a challenging winter especially from the point of view of finishers. Generally, in winter finishing and the store trade, there can be good and bad years. The store trade tends to be like that. The past year certainly was a challenging one. Coming into the spring, prices were under pressure and costs were still high. I was aware of it, was monitoring it closely and was sensitive to it. It is welcome that in recent months, we have seen improved prices, which is necessary for farmers. When this debate was originally sought, the price was approximately €6.05 or €6.10 for hoggets and it was good to see it break through the €7 barrier in the past week or so. It is approximately €7.10 now. We have seen an almost €1 per kilogram increase since the debate was called, which on a 22 kg or 23 kg carcass is an increase of approximately €20 or €23 per lamb. It is very much needed. There has been life in the market in recent weeks, which is important. I hope we will see that continue and maintained. It has helped to relieve some of the pressure and bring it back into a situation where farmers who are selling now are making a margin again. I will monitor it closely as it goes through the year. In the weeks and months ahead, we will be getting back on to grass-based production, as this year's lamb comes to dominate the market. I hope we will see a good, strong market for sheep that reflects the work sheep farmers put in and the absolute necessity of a strong income and reward for that work for sheep farmers.

I think it was Senator Ahearn who mentioned that lamb was served at Dublin Castle when President Biden was here. It was great to have Secretary of State Vilsack, President Biden's minister for agriculture, attend as part of his delegation. We had good engagement with him on several occasions over the course of the week. On the night President Biden spoke in Ballina, Secretary of State Vilsack led a delegation of President Biden's travelling delegation to a reception which was hosted by the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Micheál Martin. Again lamb was part of the menu that evening and it was top class on both occasions, as it is as a product. When I met President Biden, the first thing he said was to thank me for all the food Ireland produces and sends to so many parts of the world. That was the first thing he said to me when he met me as Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. He said it was something he felt deeply and believed strongly. It was good to hear that recognition and appreciation from him, not only for the quality of the food we produce but also the fact that despite being a small country, we contribute significantly in producing and providing food to many countries in the world. That is the case for our lamb and sheep sector, given that 85% of its produce is exported.

I am working closely with Bord Bia on ensuring it is supported to market lamb internationally and domestically. It has run additional campaigns in recent weeks. Campaigns are planned for the year ahead, which will also be important in trying to maximise the markets and the value. We will also continue the work in the US. When I led a trade delegation there last year, in early 2022, we secured sheepmeat access again for the first time in more than 20 years. Much work is going on now on developing that market and trying to tie it down and make it significant. People do not eat as much sheepmeat in the US as people do here or at European level but it is a big market of 330 million people. Most of the sheepmeat in the US comes from New Zealand and Australia, especially Australia, but there is an opportunity for us to grow that as a potential market. As I stated earlier, the market returns are important. They are the most important issue. However, from a policy and income point of view, especially stepping out CAP in the next five years, I travelled the country to make sure all sectors in all parts of the country were part of the CAP formation process. With respect to how the CAP is structured, I accept what people say, that the sheep welfare scheme and the new sheep incentive scheme did not receive the same large percentage increase as the suckler beef scheme. Despite that, with regard to the structure of the CAP, the sheep sector is the sector that will benefit most from the changes we have made in CAP, both in Pillar 1, in respect of entitlements, front-loading and the convergence that is happening, which will most of all benefit the sheep sector, as well as in Pillar 2.In particular, the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, which is the most significant scheme in Pillar 2, really has the highest uptake among sheep farmers. As I said earlier in the year when there were calls for putting funding towards the sheep incentive scheme, if we were to apply €10 of our CAP money to the sheep incentive scheme, that would provide €1,000 for a 100-ewe flock, for example. We had significant numbers of applications from sheep farmers for ACRES. In many counties, up to half of them would have been excluded and would not have been in ACRES if we had not been able to find the extra money and the capacity to include all. The most significant contribution I could make was making sure we got all of those sheep farmers who applied into ACRES this year because that brings them into payments of €5,000, €5,500 and potentially up to €7,000. They all now have that certainty that they are in that ACRES scheme. Any sheep farmer who applied, and the vast majority would have, is now in ACRES this year. That is a big level of confidence and certainty for them.

Last year and again this year, I have been and am working in particular to address the challenges around the Ukrainian cost challenge. Last year, I moved to introduce the fodder incentive scheme delivering €1,000 per farm to make fodder and to address the increased cost of fertiliser. That €1,000 was paid to sheep farmers last year. It is in place again this year and I forward-paid it as well last November and December, so that farmers will have the money in advance to be able to pay and prepare for this year, again to address the cost challenges that exist.

I want to see a strong sheep sector and want to see it develop, as do all Senators, which is clear from all the contributions today. We all have been concerned by the recent challenges. I will continue to monitor the situation closely and as this evolves, as has been the case this year in terms of many of the steps to support the sheep sector through the CAP, I will seek to make improvements. I would like to be able to do more. Obviously I have to work with the budget I have but I want to work to make sure that budget supports the sector. Hopefully we can look forward to seeing the market continue to perform more strongly than it did, to see a return. Certainly as a Minister working at Government level and listening to what I am hearing here today, I will avail of any opportunity I can to continue to support the sector in the time ahead as we step into next year's budget and looking ahead to build on the supports we already have in place. I thank the Cathaoirleach and Seanadóirí for their contributions today and thank the farm representatives for their time also.