Martin Ferris (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, I would like to be associated with the wishes of support for Joe Healy, the new president of the IFA. Hopefully he will bring radical change to that organisation and restore trust among the wider farming community.

Under the Minister's watch, agriculture has slid into a crisis in so many sectors that I do not know where to start. I am inundated with calls and visits to my constituency office from farmers who are in desperation. When a new Government is formed, I do not know whether Deputy Coveney will still be the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and in the driving seat. Many would argue that he is leaving behind a legacy of neglect of the vulnerable sectors. Many, particularly in the farming community, are of the opinion that the Minister's Government has been a champion of the big farmer. They are also very critical of the leaders of certain farming organisations who were seen to be similarly supportive of the big boys to the detriment of many farmers born and raised in the proud tradition of agricultural production in Ireland who are beginning to realise there is no future for their children or their children's children in farming. That is an awful indictment not only of the Minister's Government but also of previous Governments. We have seen the championing of big farms as good and great, and small and medium-sized farmers and family farms have suffered terribly as a consequence.

Did the Minister really consider, during his time at the head of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the role of a progressive Minister in rural Ireland? Rural Ireland is very dependent on the family farm for its survival. The number of people leaving small family farms in the last decade or two has had terrible social consequences for rural Ireland. It is an indictment of the entire political system in this House. Does the Minister even consider that his place at the Cabinet table is intended to be a representative and supportive role for the man and woman who, by their efforts and skill, produce the clean, green, wholesome produce of Irish farms?

When I talk about Irish farms and family farms I am talking about people who work seven days a week, who are up all night either lambing ewes or calving heifers and who go out in hail, rain and snow and, unfortunately often this past while, through hell and high water to produce the very best agrifood in the world. They need their Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the leaders of the farming organisations to stand up for them but, unfortunately, the record of the past is that they have not stood up for them. They have given platitudes to the big, progressive farmer to the detriment of the small and medium-sized family farm. What is the point of a Minister who does not look at the most important link in the food chain - that is, the person who actually produces the food?

Let us look at the dairy sector. I remember watching the news on RTE at the end of March 2015. George Lee was excited about the end of the milk quotas and was talking as if the dairy sector had won the lotto. The Minister was there. If one opened one's mouth and urged caution, one was seen as somebody who did not know what they were talking about. Sinn Féin and I were criticised at that time for being naive because we were advising caution and warning that the obvious consequences of the removal of the quota would be an increase in production and a drop in prices. That was plain and evident for anybody to see, yet Irish farmers and people who were not even involved in the dairy sector were encouraged by the Minister, the leaders of the farming organisations and the processors to go into dairy production.

They were also encouraged by the banks.

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