Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have an opportunity to speak on this issue which is very important for the area I represent. Our party is committed to protecting and developing agriculture for the 140,000 farm families in Ireland as the main driver of the rural economy and custodians of the countryside. We believe in the family farm model that places environmentally and socially sustainable farming at the heart of agriculture. The agrifood sector is the largest indigenous industry in Ireland, employing over 175,000 people and with food and drink exports reaching nearly €11 billion in 2015.

Fianna Fáil in government introduced a visionary food harvest strategy for 2010 to 2020. Food Wise 2025 has been generally welcomed by the industry but the litmus test will be if it delivers fair prices and profit levels for farmers. That is not happening. We are dealing daily with farmers who are struggling to survive whether in dairy, sheep or beef, which is the most common type of farming in my area. I know many farmers, young and old, who are expecting agri-environment option scheme, AEOS, payments and cannot get them. I meet people who owe money to the banks which put pressure on them because their limits have expired but they are waiting for money to come in. They are very frustrated because they cannot get an answer. There should be a person, or persons, designated to answer their queries. They are at their wits’ end trying to survive. We all know that the profit for farming today is what comes in the envelope. If that is delayed, it puts a great deal of pressure on farm families.

There are young farmers, new entrants, who have rented expensive land this year, expecting to get, on entering the new scheme, €310 a hectare only to discover that there is no money in the scheme for 2016 for them and their payment will be approximately €60 a hectare. That is a big reduction, particularly for people who bought expensive grassland. Some are tied into these schemes for five and six years and have discovered that there will be no payment. That is my understanding. Perhaps it is different, but I would like the Minister to respond to me on that point.

While the payment for the genomic scheme is welcome, this needs to be teased out because in my area, the north west, we are noted for producing the best store and beef cattle in Ireland but there is a great deal of confusion. I know good farmers who have developed suckler herds over the past 30 and 40 years whose cows get two or three stars but Friesian cows get five stars. This does not make sense to the people trying to survive in the scheme and something needs to be done about it.

I know a farmer who has a levy bill of €83,000 from his dairy for oversupply of milk. This man will not survive by farming. I do not know if there is a scheme in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine which could help this man with the milk he is producing. When he started to produce milk, it cost 38 cent or 39 cent a litre. Today, he gets 24 cent a litre. I do not know if he could qualify for other schemes within the Department. I would like the Minister to respond to that because it is very unfair.

The beef industry is the cornerstone of Irish agriculture and employs more people than any other sector. The move by ABP food group to take a 50% stake in Slaney Foods raises legitimate questions of sufficient competition in the beef and lamb processing sector. Should this move be approved, ABP will have close to 30% of the Irish beef processing sector and 40% of the sheep processing sector. ABP controls 28% of the national cattle kill, 40% of the national sheep kill and 50% of the country’s rendering capacity. That is a dangerous situation if it is allowed to develop because it limits the number of customers that will be at the mart to buy these cattle. That needs to be addressed. Farmers cannot continue to be price takers as opposed to price makers, particularly in the beef sector. Beef prices are set to come under pressure in the second half of 2016 as there will likely be between 50,000 and 80,000 additional finished cattle available, due largely to the 25% fall in live cattle exports in 2015. This is going to cause more than a ripple in the market. It is something that we must watch for and be able to address. It is crucial that the live export trade is kept open.

I was glad to hear the Minister say this morning that the Turkish market will open for live cattle. That is a crucial market but there is no point having the markets open if we cannot get the cattle on boats and out of the country. Apparently there are difficulties about some of the boats being used and there are issues for people buying cattle to export. Some of those need to be addressed to make it simpler so that when the cattle are bought they are ready to be exported straightaway.

The area I come from in the north west borders the Six Counties. If cattle are taken across the Border, they are treated as cattle of no origin despite going practically from one field to another and their price is cut by €150 a head. I ask the Minister to take this on board because it is wrong. There is nothing wrong with the animal reared in one field compared with one reared in the next field and there is no reason for that cut in price. I do not see any reason for it, except that somebody is abusing the market, and the fact that they are southern cattle being fed and slaughtered in the North.

To improve the living standard for farmers, there should be more places for rural social schemes because that work helps sustain young farm families. The State gets a good return on that money because good work is done, as can be seen in any town or village. The money is not wasted but well and truly invested in the local communities and it supports small farmers staying on the land. Without it, they will not be there.

In my county, Sligo, we have received no money to spend on local improvement schemes for the past number of years. People living on roads which have not been taken into charge by the county council could make a contribution to the cost of repairing them. There may be four or five families living on a road. The roads are disintegrating and it is very difficult for the families living on them.

It was a great scheme and it is unfortunate that funding was not made available over recent years. I know it is the responsibility of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, but I ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to try to influence his colleague in the Department to make funding available as part of the road allocation to local authorities to ensure people have adequate roads on which to travel to work, take children to school and everything else.

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