Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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1569. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to support the upgrade of internet facilities in marts as a matter of urgency; his plans to reopen marts before the end of the six week lockdown to take account of the difficulty many farmers are having with trying to sell stock online in order to keep the food supply chain working as normal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33931/20]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Since the beginning of the Covid19 crisis, my Department has worked intensively, in cooperation with marts representative organisations, to ensure that marts may remain in operation. I would like to commend the representative organisations for this good and necessary cooperation. I would like to commend also the marts themselves, and farmers around the country, for the resilience they have shown in the face of this pandemic, and the speed with which they have adapted to the new circumstances.

My Department has adapted the conditions under which marts must operate since April, to reflect the various measures introduced by the Government to stop the spread of Covid19 and to allow marts to continue to operate.

From April to June 8^th, marts operated without public attendance at sales rings, with marts able to operate transactions online or facilitate the brokering of sales, including the weighing and viewing of stock and the safe processing of financial transactions for buyers and sellers. From June, as other public health restrictions lifted, public attendance at sales rings was again permitted in marts subject to strict compliance with Covid19-specific standard operating procedures in each mart, based on the HSE Covid19 rules.

On 19^thOctober, the Taoiseach announced that the whole country would move to Level 5 of the Framework for Living with COVID-19 for a period of 6 weeks, starting midnight on Wednesday, the 21^st. Protecting the agri-food sector and people in rural communities is at the centre of my Department’s direction, on 20^thOctober, that sales rings must close, however that all mart business may continue by conducting sales by brokering transactions or by using online platforms.

From a position where few marts had online systems in place in April, there has been a rapid take up of the new systems by marts over recent months. Currently the vast majority of marts have online systems in place and are operating through online platforms. Some remaining marts are in the process of installing online systems. Thousands of cattle and sheep have been bought and sold successfully using the various online platforms. As with any new technology, there have been some glitches and these have been dealt with as they arise.

Online sales are reaching a much higher number of farmers, dealers, and agents than sales on marts premises did, even prior to the start of Covid restrictions. On Saturday 24^thOctober, the online sales companies reported to my officials that at one stage that day more than 40,000 people were logged in to online mart sales.The majority of marts are reporting good clearance rates and robust prices.

Since the introduction of Level 5, during the first five days on which marts were in operation using online sales, the cattle throughput in marts came to 36,034 head – this compares to 42,918 head in the corresponding five day period in 2019. This means that, despite the undoubted immediate disruption caused by moving to Level 5, mart throughput of cattle was 84% of the figures for that period in 2019. This demonstrates that marts have been able to continue to operate and farmers have been able to continue to buy and sell, thanks to the commitment and resourcefulness of the marts and service providers involved. Buyers may still view animals in person by prior appointment with the relevant mart.

These figures are testament to the hard work and commitment of marts to keep operating in this difficult period. My Department will continue to monitor the situation, and to adapt measures applied to marts in line with public health guidelines. I have no plans to reintroduce physical presence at sales at marts premises while Level 5 remains in force.