By agreement and notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, Members shall be called in Private Members' Time this evening as follows: 7 p.m. to 7.20 p.m., Fianna Fáil speaker; 7.20 p.m. to 7.30 p.m., Fianna Fáil speaker; 7.30 p.m. to 7.40 p.m., Fianna Fáil speaker; 7.40 p.m. to 8.10 p.m., Government speaker; 8.10 p.m. to 8.20 p.m., Fianna Fáil speaker and 8.20 p.m. to 8.30 p.m., Fianna Fáil speaker.
Private Members' Business. - Agriculture Emergency Measures: Motion.
Is that schedule of speakers agreed? Agreed.
(Limerick West): I move:
"That Dáil Éireann recognises the present disastrous state of Irish agriculture and calls on the Government to intervene immediately and effectively with a comprehensive package of emergency measures which will alleviate the difficulties of thousands of farmers who are facing bankruptcy because of the reduction in milk prices and output, the loss of livestock and the failure of crops.".
I was glad to hear the Minister for Agriculture announce on Friday last, 6 June, an increase in the aid for silage making. From a reading of the fairly recent history of western Europe I felt that D-day, 6 June, had a certain significance from which happily this country was spared. I might say to the Minister, in sorrow and anger, that for Irish agriculture in the year 1986, 6 June was long past D-day or Government-action-day as I would prefer to call it.
Irish agriculture has been facing a major crisis for many months past. Farmers foresaw that crisis over the wet months of last summer and autumn and throughout the long winter when fodder for their animals was of bad quality and scarce. Hope that the spring would bring relief turned to fear when cold, wet weather meant very little grass grew. Throughout that period no encouragement was given on the part of the Government. There was some emergency aid given in the autumn of 1985, some further help by way of early payments of moneys due anyway a month or two ago, some help for starving cattle in the west long after the time when that help should have been granted. Nowhere has there been any genuine Government concern voiced about the state of agriculture. The Government have been too occupied with other non-economic issues. It seems the Government have divorced themselves totally from agriculture.
What a lovely pun.
(Limerick West): The Government may chose not to believe the extent of the crisis. If members of the Government were to take some time off from their preoccupation with other matters to ask farmers how they feel about Government help in these bad times, they would be left in no doubt at all that they feel neglected and forgotten.
The purpose of the Fianna Fáil motion this evening is to bring the Government to their senses, to help them realise before it is too late, that it is not good enough to give a little help and hope that the problem will resolve itself or will simply go away, because neither will happen. Over the past year agriculture has suffered as a result of a series of events which have caused damage of a kind unheard of in recent times. The effects of the bad weather cannot be exaggerated. Farmers can put up with a certain amount of bad weather, managing their business, perhaps with loss, and can survive, but last year was different; even city people should realise that fact.
Even in the most fortunate farming areas cattle were in poor condition at the commencement of this year. A good spring would have made a difference but the spring of 1986 matched in its harshness the summer and autumn of 1985. This is no story or the farmer complaining about weather conditions. This is no worn-out joke. Rather is it a genuine story of disastrous weather conditions bringing many farmers to the brink of ruin. Many of the rural and farming organisations are saying the same thing.
I call on the Government now to give some hope and help to those thousands of farmers to prevent great numbers going over the brink into bankruptcy. I am sure the Minister realised as well as I do that, in order to keep going over the past year, many farmers have been forced to incur greatly increased debt while farm incomes show no sign of increasing to meet this additional burden. Milk yields are significantly below normal — small wonder considering the poor condition of cows and the weather conditions. Farmers' costs have not been reduced. Just to take one example, the price of diesel oil to farmers has not been reduced as much as one might have expected. Returns from farming show no hope of increase. Because of the 1986-87 price agreements milk quotas are to be reduced by a further 3 per cent, in my view, quite wrongly. Continuing support for the beef market is in doubt and cereal farmers risk heavy income losses. All of this amounts to farmers having greatly increased debt burdens, with little relief from costs and little hope of increased returns from sales of their products. All of this adds up to no hope of increased farm incomes. The result is there for all to see — a fall in the price of land.
I hope the Minister realised that the security on which the farmer could rely for development or, in this year, for survival, is being reduced. As a form of security farming is going down in the eyes of the financial institutions, and the Government are doing nothing to correct that position. Of course some farmers will survive, those with holdings well above the average in size, not carrying large debts. My concern is for the smaller farmer, the man and his family whom we hoped would be able to continue working and living as farmers throughout the length and breadth of the country. These are the people whose continued existence is being put at risk following the disastrous year we have been through and of which we have not yet seen the end. For generations those farmers were looked on as the backbone of rural areas if not of the country as a whole.
The Government must take action quickly. I should like the Minister to say what action they intend to take. The Minister might be having difficulty bringing home to his colleagues in Government the state of the country's main industry. Many of his colleagues, some in positions as Ministers of State, as is Deputy Connaughton and others representing country areas, are leaving him in no doubt as to what they think of the situation in agriculture today. I am sure the Minister has in mind what should be done.
Action should be taken in a number of areas using our own resources and with the help of the European Community. Fianna Fáil did not hesitate in putting our case to our European partners in 1981 when there was a crisis in agriculture which was not as intense as the present crisis. Certain very valuable schemes were the result such as the AI subsidy scheme and the subsidy on fertiliser and ground limestone. These schemes should be reintroduced and the amounts increased. There was aid for farmers in disadvantaged areas. It was galling to read recently in Germany that there was a major extension of the disadvantaged areas and that farmers in these areas were given increased aid from the State.
These are some of the ways in which emergency aid could be given to farmers who are struggling for survival. More than that could be done. We are members of the EC which has a clearly stated objective — the development of economically weak areas of the Community. Article 39 of the Treaty of Rome clearly outlines the Community's commitment to a fair standard of living for all farmers taking into account the social structure and conditions in the various regions. The Commission and the Council of Ministers have taken action in emergency cases on the basis of the Governments of the affected areas making a case to them. We have every ground at this time for making such a case. The Minister should tell the House that such an approach will be made to the Commission and that it will include the reintroduction of the special schemes I have outlined — an emergency extension of the disadvantaged areas, an increase in headage grants and a realistic increase in the moneys available through the Euro loan scheme. The recent heavily publicised Euro loan scheme is inadequate for present day conditions in agriculture. The Government should demand that representatives from the EC visit Ireland to see conditions for themselves. In this way the Commission could be assured that we are not exaggerating the position.
We should demand EC intervention at this time of crisis. Fianna Fáil have already announced their policy of drawing up a balance sheet showing the gains and losses of EC membership. This is an important part of our policy. We are not in any way casting doubt on Ireland's membership of the EC but feel, looking at the quarter of a million people who are unemployed, that the drawing up of a balance sheet would be a necessary beginning to an approach to the EC for a more determined and planned effort to put the economy on a healthy footing. In his speech on 30 May the Minister for Foreign Affairs gave a weak indication to the House of some change in Government thinking about our methods of approach to the EC. Something far more than weak thinking is needed at this stage. We should not apologise for our existence in Europe. We are full members with full rights and should not be diffident about demanding them. The Government should make an approach to the EC about the present crisis in farming which is the subject of the motion before the House.
One hears much talk about financial institutions and about great variations in their methods of approach to farmers. The worst case I heard of was where farmers were pressed to sell off stock to cover their bad debts. Financial institutions should be more realistic in their approach to an industry which is the source of much of their profits. Has the Minister had any discussions with the financial institutions?
I would sum up the root cause of the agricultural crisis under three headings. First, an uncaring Government who have shown a disastrous lack of sympathy and understanding for our primary industry. Secondly, a determined effort by some elements within the EC to dismantle the Common Agricultural Policy without regard to the special position of Ireland. Thirdly, the weather, the effects of which have been made worse by Government and EC inaction. Speaking as much as a farmer as Fianna Fáil spokesman on Agriculture, I say to the Government that they ignore the message of this debate at their peril. They cannot dismiss what we say on this side of the House as they so arrogantly tend to do. The farmers who approach us in deep despair, their families and the thousands of farm related workers will not forget these doleful days and the Government's responsibility for them.
Irish agriculture——
I thought——
I do not know if the Minister was here but a unanimous order——
Excuse me.
Agriculture in rural areas has not been so depressed since the thirties. Many farmers are having nervous breakdowns. They have no bread to put on the table. There is total disarray in the industry due to lack of funding and weather conditions.
The Euro currency scheme being introduced by the Government is too little too late. It is only the tip of the iceberg because there is a real financial problem in Irish agriculture. Many areas of the deal need clarification. Is the handling charge to be 3 per cent or 2 per cent? If it is to be 3 per cent it will be an alarmingly high charge, a rip-off by the financial institutions once more and the Government should intervene in regard to it. The currency surcharge, because of a risk of a fluctuation in currencies within the Euro system, should also be explained. Will the Minister say if the borrowers will be refunded if the risk does not arise because there is a further 2 per cent for the risk involved?
Another scandal is that the Government and the Minister for Finance delayed announcing the final details of this Euro loan package. I understand that the first £4,000 will be at the Euro rate and that represents an insult when one considers the crisis that exists in Irish agriculture. Only a few years ago Deputy MacSharry, as Minister for Finance, brought in £100 million of Euro currency, £50 million to be disposed of by the ACC and £50 million by the associated banks. That was a realistic input into agriculture. We need an injection of £200 million now. When Deputy MacSharry was responsible the money was handed out in lots of £25,000 and a mechanism was found under which two people on a holding could qualify for £50,000 of that Euro currency. That was a more realistic way to deal with the problem. The Coalition failed to continue to borrow when that Euro loan had been repaid by the ACC and the associated banks. The last Government were committed to getting further large amounts of Euro currency and had the Coalition continued with that policy agriculture would not be in the bad state it is in today.
The Department of Finance are again demonstrating their anti-farmer, anti-rural antics and their lack of commitment to the agricultural industry. Many farmers have debts that will never be paid unless they shed assets. We are all aware that the family farm is the basis of our society and our economy. There is an obligation on the Government, and on all Members, to protect our family farms that are under the greatest threat since the days of the landlords. Many merchants and co-operatives have given a lot of credit to farmers to purchase feedstuffs. An alarmingly big amount of feedstuff has been purchased this year. I do not know what outlets small farmers will have for their produce this year. A farmer with 30 dairy cows, milking 18,000 gallons of milk, will have feed costs well in excess of the value of that milk.
The failure of the Euro currency scheme is that it cannot be used as working capital or to pay existing debts. A big problem here is that the total borrowings of Irish farmers amount to £1,700 million, an alarmingly high figure by any standards. Much of that has been accummulated as a result of high interest rates in the last five or six years. It is well known that 2,000 farmers have been identified as being on the brink or have gone forever. That is a sad reflection on Irish society. I understand that according to ACOT 10,000 farmers are in serious financial difficulty.
The bad weather last year and this year has done untold harm to milk production. I understand that this year there will be a shortfall of between 40 million and 50 million gallons of milk, the equivalent of what the Minister gave away in Brussels in his negotiations on the 3 per cent. On that occasion he ran home and let other EC countries do his business for him. That drop in milk production means fewer jobs for people in rural areas and greater inefficiency in our co-operative movement because of the over capacity in our dairy industry. That will result in a further reduction in the income of Irish farmers.
It is said that £40 million has been spent on the purchase of feed by Irish farmers, an alarmingly high figure. Farm incomes are expected to fall this year by £50 million, irrespective of the views of the Central Bank in the course of their report issued in May. Those who deal with agriculture in the Central Bank must be living in cloud cuckoo land. It is serious when we have the Central Bank making the point that last year's shortfall of 12 per cent in farm incomes will be made up by an increase in cereal production this year. We are all aware that as a result of EC negotiations there will be a big drop in the intervention price paid for Irish cereals and that the acreage of barley sown this year has dropped because of weather conditions. Many farmers were unable to get to their land to sow seeds because of weather conditions. That land will not produce any crop this year, another indication of the real crisis in Irish agriculture. It is a insult to the farming community to produce such a report.
The Minister has boasted that £900 million will be available for Irish agriculture but a mere 20 per cent of that figure will go to our farmers. In real terms 80 per cent of that figure consists of FEOGA aid, intervention costs and other EC assistance.
It is important to stress that only 20 per cent of the £900 million will find its way into the pockets of the farming community. Stories to the contrary must be killed. Irish farmers have lost £200 million since Minister Deasy took charge of the Department of Agriculture. It is well known that the Minister has failed to make an input at Cabinet meetings because the Taoiseach is not concerned about what he has to say in regard to agriculture. The Taoiseach is more concerned about Deputy Ruairí Quinn. It is well known that Minister Deasy has run down the corridor from Cabinet meetings having been scaled by his Taoiseach who was prepared to listen to his Labour left-wingers rather than to him. I am aware that the Minister is disappointed at the treatment he gets from the Taoiseach. Any person living in Donnybrook is not concerned about the farmers living in Waterford or in any other county.
The Deputy cannot afford to talk. Every time a statement has to be made the Opposition spokesman on Agriculture is left out and the boss takes over.
The Deputy will not be back after he meets the north Meath farmers. I am sure they will be generous to him in the next election.
Deputies should address the Chair.
There is a crisis in the pig industry.
There is a crisis elsewhere.
The Chair should silence that Deputy who thinks his sole function in the House is to interrupt.
He will not be back, boss.
When there is a problem the Opposition spokesman is not allowed to make a statement.
If Deputy Farrelly does not cease interrupting he will have to leave the House.
The pig industry has never been in such a crisis in the last 40 years and those involved are not getting much support from the Government. If corrective action is not taken our pig and bacon industry will go in the same direction that our textile and footwear industries went. That specialised area should get the Minister's attention. He should be prepared to invest money in it to save it because its problems are short term. If that industry fails thousands of jobs will be lost. In the region of 3,000 people are employed in the processing side of that industry and many are employed in the services side, the farm side and in the feed supply sector. It would not surprise me to hear 10,000 people are employed in that industry.
Agriculture is our basic industry and if there is not an input into it by the Government our economy will suffer. It is worth noting that Fianna Fáil have only been in Government for four and a half years of the last 13 years. They have presided over many major negotiations in that period and we have lost several of our rightful concessions. In the 1973-77 period I remember Deputy Collins was spokesman for Agriculture and mark Clinton was Minister for Agriculture, and he was bringing back all sorts of euphoria from Europe. We lost out during that time because all the Minister brought back were transitional benefits. We had an enormous amount of nonsense about it at the time. We now have another Minister who sells out every time he goes to Brussels. He should take a lead from the German farmers.
We are discussing this motion against a background of the recently published ACOT corporate plan, the most dismal document published on agriculture. It states that dairying is the only agricultural enterprise generating sufficient cash for development. Many dairy farmers would question that statement. The plan states that cattle, beef, sheep and tillage could not generate sufficient activity to pay off interest or to provide finance for development. This is another problem year, with late growth, and farmers are supplementing their feed with costly meal. They have had to apply additional fertiliser with little advantage. There is a serious fall off in income with a consequent drop in living standards.
I support Deputy Noonan's suggestion that there should be long term subsidised loans, not for just a year or so, but until farmers get back into profitability. We must have an extension of the severely handicapped areas. This applies more to the constituency I represent than to many others. There is a serious imbalance there and we in that constituency were victimised because only about 40 per cent of the region is designated. Only that small proportion qualifies for cattle headage grants.
The Social and Economic Committee of the EC in an information report a few years ago stated that statistics indicate that Cavan, Monaghan, Leitrim and Donegal are particularly handicapped, with special claims on Community assistance. It stated that farming is the lynchpin of the economy, particularly in the south of the region, and there is very little industrial employment, very low incomes, acute unemployment, emigration and a fall in population.
That should be sufficient to ensure an extension immediately of the severely disadvantaged areas to the region I have referred to and I ask the Minister to apply for an extension to cover the entire 12 western countries. In west Cavan, Leitrim and Donegal there is a serious problem, with many cattle deaths, serious loss of milk yields and cattle in very poor condition. Last Saturday a man came to my clinic who had lost 12 animals out of a herd of 40. They died even after he, a good farmer, had bought in a substantial amount of feed when his own had run out in February.
I should like to ask the Minister about the closure of the Monaghan bacon factory. It employs 103 people, producing completely for export. In that area we need exports because there is too much free importation of bacon there. We must go out to sell our produce if we are to compete. From 1981 we exported 33 per cent of our production but by 1985 that had dropped to 28 per cent, at a time when we should be selling abroad.
Recently I asked the Minister if he would carry out a survey on production, processing and marketing of bacon and bacon products. He said there had been a number of such surveys and another would not be of any benefit. In order to generate employment, I ask the Minister again to look seriously at this.
I referred earlier to an extension of the severely handicapped areas. I would put particular importance on a reduction in fertiliser prices. At a meeting recently I learned that imported fertilisers can be sold at £20 to £30 a ton less than the producers we have supported throughout the years, NET. Their prices are exorbitant for nitrogenous fertilisers.
This year we must concentrate on silage making. The Minister recently announced a 5 per cent increase in silage subsidies. That is welcome, but it is too late in the year. Any farmer who wishes to go into silage will have to draw up a plan through ACOT; it will have to go from there to the FDS office and then application will have to be made for planning permission. Planning permission is bound by severe conditions nowadays because of possible effluent. A farmer who does the full rounds would not be in a position to lay down his concrete base for six weeks or two months. He would have to wait another week or ten days before emptying silage into the pit. That would mean that a farmer would be making silage in late autumn when the product would be of questionable value.
I should like to draw the Minister's attention to the anomalies in the farm improvement programme. The reference income in the western counties is £7,600, in the east it is £8,835 and in Dublin £10,800. Farmers with 31 cows averaging 1,000 gallons each would not qualify in the western counties but in Louth or Meath or any of the Leinster counties they could qualify. This is a serious anomaly. In previous schemes advantage was given to the low income farmers.
Another serious anomaly in that scheme is the connection of the reference income system to the man work days. An interesting statistic recently pointed out that a farmer who had 44 cattle comprising eight suckler cows, 16 beasts from nought to one year and 20 from one to two years — the number of man days is 250 per year — and such a farmer, because he has a slatted house for his cattle would be allowed only 56. The most such a man could hope to qualify for in regard to farm development, including drainage and cattle buildings, is £9,000. It is typical of what is happening at the moment. Most of the schemes are designed by civil servants, at the least possible cost and for the least possible benefit to the farmers.
I move amendment No. 1:
To delete all words after "That" and substitute the following:
"Dáil Éireann recognises that the unfavourable weather experienced over the past year has caused difficulties for many Irish farmers, particularly in certain areas, and endorses the various measures adopted by the Government to assist those farmers in coping with the situation."
I should like to refer to newspaper reports today of claims made by a certain farming organisation that farm incomes last year were lower than at any time since we joined the EC. In fact, it was contended they were lower than at any time since 1970. In real terms that is not correct. If one omits 1984, real farm incomes compare favourably with any year during the eighties. The worst year for farm incomes since the early seventies was 1974 and the second and third worst years were 1980 and 1981.
That is only departmental rubbish.
If Deputy Byrne or any other Deputy wishes to contradict——
The Minister should bring the civil servants down the country and show them what is happening.
The Deputy should not attack civil servants. They cannot reply.
They can make mistakes. They cannot add.
I had hoped this debate would be harmonious and constructive because there is need for a constructive debate if this House is to have any relevance. If we are going to have this kind of catcalling and interrupting we will achieve nothing for the farming community. It is important that we have a constructive discussion on this matter. I wish to make clear that real farm incomes in 1985 were down on 1984 but that was an exceptionally good year. Real farm incomes were considerably better than in a number of previous years, including 1980, 1981 and 1982.
Nobody denies there is a serious problem and we would not be truthful if we were to say otherwise. We had the worst summer in living memory in 1985 which caused many problems, particularly with regard to the salvaging of fodder and, if that was not bad enough, we had the worst spring in living memory in 1986. The combination of winter and spring which lasted for four months meant sub-zero temperatures, wind, rain and cold. Those conditions worsened an already difficult situation and we must face up to that fact and attempt to resolve the problems that have arisen as a result.
The appalling weather last summer and early autumn created very serious problems for many farmers in this country, especially for those in the west and north west who were dependent on hay for winter feed and also for some tillage farmers, mainly cereal growers. The Government, at my behest, agreed a wide range of measures designed to ease the difficulties faced by such farmers. The House will recall the introduction last August of the winter fodder scheme comprising a subsidy for nitrogenous fertilisers and a subsidy for the first time silage makers. Some 24,000 and 34,000 applicants respectively availed themselves of these subsidies. These measures were followed by the Shannon valley flood scheme under which upwards of 2,000 applicants received grant aid. Subsequently, the feed voucher scheme was launched with a cash grant plus EC grain at a reduced price. This scheme attracted some 90,000 applicants, over 80,000 of whom proved eligible and received assistance.
At the beginning of this year as a measure to help the tillage farmers who had been hard hit and also those farmers who had suffered severe crop losses as a result of the hailstorm in July last, I introduced a special working capital scheme under which loans were made available at rates of interest which were subsidised to the extent of 5 per cent. The total cost to the Exchequer of all these special measures was over £22 million. In addition, 125,00 tonnes of grain were provided by the EC at a reduced price.
Each of these special measures was designed to meet a particular situation and in drawing them up I was anxious to ensure that aid provided from the limited Exchequer funds available was directed to those farmers who were most in need of help. The objective of almost all the schemes was to help farmers who were short of winter feed for their livestock to purchase sufficient feed to tide them over until the time when it might be expected they would have the spring growth of grass. Certainly the schemes helped in no small measure to prevent panic selling of stock last autumn and winter. This in itself was indeed indicative of the success of the measures in achieving their objective.
However, the bad weather continued into 1986 and delayed the arrival of the normal spring growth of grass by as much as four to six weeks in many areas. The very cold conditions which occurred during the first four months of this year were particularly difficult for farming, not only because of the unusually persistent cold spell but also because such harsh conditions succeeded one of the wettest summers and autumns in recent memory. Following the very cold and dry February, the spring was cold and wet. At many western and north western weather stations it was the wettest spring since records began. It was also the coldest spring since the record-breaking 1979 with temperatures ranging from 0.7ºC to 1.5ºC below normal. The scarcity and poor quality of much cattle fodder led to considerable stress on animals over the winter and spring, especially as the cold conditions continued throughout April and much of May.
All of us share the anxiety experienced by farmers, particularly those living in wet land areas. However, an important distinction must be drawn. Most of the country is not too badly affected, although I accept that even non-farmers are depressed by the bad weather. Farmers living in areas with good soil can make silage and they will get by, given reasonable weather. However, where the land is wet by nature there is a real problem. Last week in the south of the country silage-making was proceeding at a considerable rate. In fact, I should think that more silage was made in recent weeks when the weather improved somewhat but there are parts of the country where machinery cannot be used because the land is so wet. I witnessed this at first hand in a number of counties. I reject any criticism or snide remarks to the effect that I was not around the country to see the situation at first hand. In the last six to 12 months I have been in every county on numerous occasions and I have seen the state of the land and the plight of many farmers. It is not a happy situation. It is a most distressing sight to see people in extreme difficulty. We had this peculiar difficulty in areas where the land is very wet by nature.
It is difficult to define the extent of that problem. For example, above a line approximately from Drogheda to Tuam or Galway, the problem is at its greatest; but in other parts of the country there are pockets where there are serious problems. West Limerick is an area where there is such a difficulty, as has been pointed out to me by a number of my backbench Deputies. It is not even possible to define the areas which have these difficulties by referring to the seriously disadvantaged areas for the whole country. There are areas in the south which are classified as seriously disadvantaged but where fodder can be saved at present. There are areas which may not even be classified as seriously disadvantaged where fodder cannot be saved at present. I was in one such area last week — along the north Meath-south Cavan border and in County Louth. When somebody mentions County Meath they think of lush pastures fertile ground and no problems, but that is not the case — there are bad spots in virtually every county. In that area it was obvious that machinery could not be brought onto the land. If this type of weather were to continue even intermittently throughout the summer, there will be a very serious crisis in those areas. This is a problem we will have to face.
We have all heard of people eating seed potatoes, thereby eliminating the possibility of having a crop the following year. What has happened this year is that people found themselves so short of fodder during the last four months of miserable weather that they had to put livestock into fields which normally would have been retained for the production of fodder, be it hay or silage. These people have no prospect of saving hay or making silage for next winter unless there is a dramatic improvement in the weather. We will have to hope that there is an improvement because a couple of months of reasonably good weather could work wonders, but at present things do not look very encouraging.
I referred to the late growth due to the very harsh spring. Because of this we paid advances under the ewe premium scheme, £4.90 per ewe, amounting to a total of £7.2 million. I also arranged for the payment of an advance to cattle producers of £15 per suckler cow under the current headage scheme for disadvantaged areas. This meant that £4 million were paid to some 45,000 farmers up to the end of April. In addition, the Government agreed to make Army transportation available to bring fodder to particularly needy areas in the west and north-west from areas in the south and east where there was surplus fodder. I want to put on the record my thanks, and the thanks of the Government, to the Army for the very helpful work they did in this respect.
More recently I have strongly urged farmers, especially those in the west and north-west, to make immediate arrangements to make silage this year rather than risk haymaking. I repeat that exhortation here and now. I would also like to appeal to farmers in the south and east to make whatever surplus fodder they can this year in the form of hay which can be sold and transported to any areas where a fodder shortage may exist. This would be in the interests of those farmers and the farm organisations should be in a good position to arrange for transportation if and when required.
Deputy Leonard mentioned delays in getting planning permission from the various semi-State services where concrete slabs for silage were concerned. I impressed upon the farm development service, together with ACOT, the necessity for clearing those applications. I have told them that in areas where there is great difficulty in saving fodder those applications should be cleared within ten days.
At a cost of what for the planning permission?
I have not come to that. I am talking about the farm development services and ACOT and I am asking that they co-ordinate and see that applications are cleared within ten days. As we know, planning permission is a matter for individual local authorities, in this case each county council. I implore the local authorities to see that planning permission is given without undue delay. Of course the local authorities may have reservations in many cases because of pollution of waterways, but within reason I would expect the planning authorities to be very helpful and to grant these planning permission, not in the statutory two months but within a matter of days. Most Deputies are members of local authorities and they can make that point very forcibly as members of local authorities. I believe these applications should be processed within a week or two.
Can there be exempted planning?
I do not believe that would be applicable because, as I said, there is a danger——
The Minister knows that by law a local authority cannot give planning permission unless a certain time has elapsed.
Yes, three weeks.
Under the law a certain period of time must elapse——
Three weeks.
The county manager has the right——
Not the right to change the law.
Rather than it taking two months I believe a period of three weeks would be reasonable.
Sixty days.
I also referred to the utilisation of hay as a source of fodder. Some people may say that I have already stated it was preferable to make silage rather than hay. It is most likely that people in the south and east will have silage pits full within a reasonable period, but I hope there will be co-operation between farmers, the farming organisations and the co-operative societies to see that fodder in any form, particularly in a form which can be easily transported, will be provided for farmers in parts of the country where there is a real shortage and a real difficulty. Hay is probably the form of fodder most easy to transport and because of that the making of hay by people who have already secured their own fodder supplies for next winter should be entertained.
I would like the farming organisations and the co-operative societies to co-operate in such a scheme. It involves a little imagination and probably some innovation, but most of all a deal of goodwill between the people concerned. If the weather is to continue as difficult as it has been, we will have to consider a major movement of fodder from the better land areas in the south and east of the country to those difficult areas in the west and north-west.
A Deputy
It is raining there too.
(Interruptions.)
I could come in here and read a very bland script and maybe we would not benefit as much as we might by having a frank discussion. If I throw out ideas which can be helpful to people in the areas which are worst hit, I have heckling from people who are trying to score points.
Continue, Minister.
That is the most despicable type of activity in this House. I am trying to be helpful and what do I get? Snide remarks.
Hear, hear.
I thank Deputy Brennan very much.
I said that because we suffered in the west this time.
I thank the Deputy again for his co-operation. We must organise the fodder supplies at this stage. It is now only 10 June. We can avoid the worst possible aspects of what may happen if we have a particularly bad summer by moving fodder from areas where it can be grown, cut and drawn, if we get the co-operation of the farmers and the farming organisations and the co-operative movement. Remember the Trojan work last autumn in moving fodder from the south to the north west and the west. Now is the time to plan for that type of operation to take place again. Enough fodder will be grown in this country in the current year to feed all the livestock no matter how bad the weather gets in the course of the next few months and next winter. There will be enough fodder if we can distribute it properly. We need mobilisation and distribution, mobilisation of the forces at our disposal and distribution of the fodder.
That is what I am suggesting here tonight and that is what I will be suggesting to the farming organisations. I have already put that to ICOS, the organisation for the co-operative movement, and to ACOT, and we have a monitoring group between my Department, ACOT and ICOS set up already at this early stage. We set it up three weeks ago, and that is the way to act. However, we need a great deal of goodwill. We do not want people to exploit those who are in difficulty and we do not want profiteering.
And we want good Government.
We want a great deal of goodwill. I am providing that and I am asking people down the line to put their shoulder to the wheel. Deputies on all sides of the House can assist in doing that.
I would also remind farmers that generous grants are available under the farm improvement programme for the provision of silage storage facilities. As a special incentive I announced last week that, subject to EC clearance, such grants approved by the farm development service within the next 12 months are being further increased from 35 per cent to 45 per cent in disadvantaged areas and from 30 per cent to 35 per cent in other areas. Grants for silage storage facilities approved under the western package during the same period are also being increased to 45 per cent. I hope this measure will have a good response. Weather conditions last year demonstrated clearly that in our climate it just is not possible to rely on hay in many parts of Ireland.
I have referred to farm incomes. As I pointed out, the figures can be distorted if you do not use all the relevant information available. We get the type of distortions we see in the media today because account is not taken of the dropping numbers involved in agriculture. Over the years you can get a continual drift out of agriculture. It is a natural sequence and nothing can be done about it. It is less now than it used to be, but it still occurs. The following figures are pertinent and they are not borne in mind by the people who jig these statistics. In 1970 there were 240,000 people actively engaged in working on the land. In 1985 that figure had fallen to 155,000. The House can see how you can get an erroneous figure if you divide by 240,000 instead of 155,000. That is the explanation for the incorrect statistics. We have a forecast of a further fall in farm incomes this year and with the particularly bad spring that prediction could be correct, unfortunately, but a good summer could see a tremendous improvement.
Reference was made to the provision of Euro loans. So that adequate finance at reasonable interest rates will be available to the farming community, it has already been announced that two new exchange rate guarantee schemes are to be introduced. One scheme will cover borrowings up to £100 million in EMS currencies for a period of a year. A contribution of 2 per cent will be required from the borrowers as a provision against possible exchange rate losses, and any additional exchange rate loss will be met by the Exchequer. The loans must be issued for working capital purposes to cereal growers and winter beef producers with some funds also available for dairy farmers with milk quotas not exceeding 25,000 gallons.
Deputy O'Keeffe referred to this and made a number of erroneous statements. One was about the 3 per cent of the milk quota levels. That is Community wide within the EC. It does not apply this year. We will have 2 per cent of it next year and 1 per cent in the succeeding year, and it applies in every country. To date in the current year — when I say "year" I mean marketing year starting 1 April — there has been a considerable drop in the amount of milk delivered to the creameries and co-operatives in comparison with 1985, but that is due almost entirely to the bad weather conditions. I have every confidence in the farmers making the quota figure by the end of the marketing year. I think that will be done.
Deputy O'Keeffe talked about the Euro loans at £4,000. I do not know what he meant by that. The Euro loans will be up to £25,000 and there is no question of £4,000. The maximum borrowing eligible in any one case will be £25,000.
At what percentage rate?
As regards the £35 million, a contribution of 2.5 per cent will be required from borrowers——
(Interruptions.)
——as a provision against possible exchange rate losses and any additional exchange rate losses will be met by the Exchequer. Maximum eligible borrowing here will be £30,000. In the initial days when there was talk of a Euro loan the figure of £100 million was bandied about and then the farming organisations started to look for £150 million. At the end of the day I think £135 million is a considerably generous figure, and remember that each individual farmer has the right to request his own lending institution to get Euro money for him. I suggest that individual farmers should do that.
What about the exchange rate?
That is always a problem for the Government and for an individual.
(Interruptions.)
If that facility is there it is up to the individual to follow it through. I hope these loans will be available next week. The local offices of the lending institutions should be in a position to make them available from next week.
The Fianna Fáil motion contains a reference to a cut in milk prices. I do not know where that comes from. We have had a 3 per cent increase from 1 April but the motion reads: "because of the reduction". That is erroneous.
That is reality.
(Interruptions.)
It is not a cut in any terms, real or otherwise. It is a 3 per cent increase since 1 April. We all know about the particularly difficult situation in the butter area because of the amount of surplus in stock. As long as there are surpluses there will be difficulties——
Look at what the Germans did.
(Interruptions.)
Deputy Byrne once again illustrates his lack of knowledge, I do not want to use any stronger language. The Federal State of West Germany has now got its area of disadvantaged land raised to 50 per cent. Earlier this year I increased the amount to 68 per cent, so let us not quibble about it: we have a far greater percentage than most other countries in the EC.
(Interruptions.)
We saved the nation before and we will do so again.
(Interruptions.)
Order, please.
I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak in this debate. I hope that contributions will assist the Minister in helping to relieve the serious problems confronting our farmers. I am sure the Minister is fully aware of the crisis which exists at present in farming. The greatest problem facing farmers is the serious situation in relation to fodder which will arise next winter and the following spring if something is not done now.
Reserve stocks of fodder, hay and straw have all been used up this year and many farmers have empty hay sheds and silage pits for the first time. The harvesting of this year's fodder crop is four to six weeks behind time; growth was never as slow due to the weather. It is most unlikely that even the minimum fodder requirements for 1986-87 will be harvested even though the Minister said he is quite satisfied that there will be ample fodder to feed all livestock. The Minister will have to make a few more tours to get the information which he did not get on his first round of visits to farmers because the farmers to whom I speak will not be in a position to feed livestock in the autumn and early next year.
I appeal to the Minister to immediately introduce a new fertiliser and lime subsidy scheme with special assistance for farmers most in need. This would be a simple way to encourage farmers most in need to provide extra feed for their livestock with the least administrative costs. I stress this because the loans being made available now should reach the farmers' pockets in full, with the least red tape. I am worried that a lot of this money will not go directly to the farmers and that a big percentage will be used in administration costs.
More livestock will die next year from starvation unless something constructive is done now by the Minister and the Government. Feed which is needed for the winter and early spring should be provided for at present and, therefore, subsidies for fertilisers and lime should be provided now. The Minister must be aware of the drastic reductions in the purchase of fertilisers and lime over the last 12 months. Every extra pound which the Government invest in this area now will save taxpayers' money in the future. I appeal to the Minister to implement a new fertiliser and lime subsidy scheme immediately.
Livestock, especially young animals, will need extra feeding and it will cost much more money to bring them to beef in future. Another aspect is the extra unemployment which will occur in beef processing plants because, if the pattern of beef production is allowed to decline, the factories at some stage will have a shortage of supply. Our livestock export trade could also be seriously affected because our cattle will not be of the quality for which they are renowned and, as a result, we could lose export markets in this area.
I do not think the Minister has the full picture of the seriousness of what can happen in the future. The best way to provide extra fodder is by encouraging farmers to use more fertiliser and lime now. This is the only way that the extra fodder needed will be provided. Crisis measures are needed to prevent another and more disastrous animal fodder shortfall next year. I call on the Minister and the Government to act now and to launch a nationwide fodder campaign. They should also give a cash injection to help farmers most in need.
I welcome the Minister's announcement regarding the extra incentive to encourage farmers to produce more silage, as this scheme will certainly help to provide extra fodder. With regard to the distribution of the new loans, the co-operative societies, financial and banking institutions all have a major role to play in assisting farmers. I suggest that the 2 per cent handling charge should not be levied because the banks and financial institutions will only be securing repayments of existing loans, which farmers, in many cases, will find very difficult to do. Banks and financial institutions should not look on this aid as a short term solution.
The Government should also waive their 2 per cent charge, even for the first year, because it will be further recognition of the serious financial difficulties facing farmers and would give them more confidence and belief in themselves to continue in agriculture production, which is very important. The Government must seek increased EC aid immediately to help the farming industry to get back on its feet and to get over the worst effects of the weather.
Many farming families, through no fault of their own, are now in serious financial difficulties and they must receive extra aid. Milk production output has been reduced by 10 per cent this year already and feed costs have increased by 25 per cent. It is easy to understand why many farmers will end up with huge trading losses at the end of the year. Even farmers who wish to sell some of their land to reduce borrowing now find that there are no buyers, except at a very low price. Farmers' confidence was never as low as it is not just the farmer who is affected; his wife and children also suffer.
I should also like to impress on the Minister that there is an urgent need for a new and revised national rescue package on the basis of existing records available to the Minister. I am very disappointed that the Minister and the Government decided to abolish the scheme to expand our national breeding herd as the Estimates for 1986 clearly confirm. A sum of £5 million was provided in 1985 but nothing has been provided in 1986.
The Government have also more or less abolished the scheme for payment under exchange rate guaranteed loans because £10.6 million was provided in the Estimates for 1985 and only £0.6 million was provided in 1986, a reduction of £10 million. Surely this amount can now be provided to assist our farmers. This money was used specifically to encourage farmers to feed cattle to beef on grass over the summer months. I criticise the EC farm package for its failure to help and encourage small farming families since it was the big EC producer who was causing most of the surpluses in Europe. I find it very difficult to understand why Ireland, which is still 40 per cent behind the Community average in development, should have been requested to comply with the freezing of agricultural production levels.
I conclude by saying that the greatest problem facing farmers is the lack of confidence they have in the present Coalition Government. It is the duty and responsibility of the Government to get out of office now and let in the Government the people want and will have confidence in and will work for.
I rise to give total unqualified support to this motion. It is the most important motion this House has debated in my three and a half years here. The present situation in agriculture in the west is the worst in the history of our country since the days of black '47. Livestock are dying; there is no fodder; farmers are flat broke and the financial institutions are exerting far too much pressure on all farmers, many of whom find themselves in financial difficulty. As far as I am concerned, the Agricultural Credit Corporation are reneging on their obligations as a so-called farmers' bank.
The situation in the west has reached catastrophic crisis proportions. Every third farmer is in serious financial difficulty. Most lands are too wet to travel on with machinery. There is a total shortage of fodder and little grass. Only half of the beet crop is sown; two-thirds of cereals are sown; one tenth of the potato crop is sown and about one-twentieth of the silage crop is cut at the moment. These are the stark figures that illustrate how serious the situation is in the west at this time. Cattle, and even some sheep, are dying. Farmers are totally frustrated with the inclement weather, with the losses of stock, with diminishing returns and the pressure of financial institutions. There is a serious exodus of farm workers and farm people out of agriculture in the west. The situation is so serious that farmers are leaving their wives and families overnight and emigrating to different parts of the world in the dark of night to try to make ends meet and put a few pounds together to ensure that their families have some subsistence available to them. That is how serious the situation is. Other farmers are contemplating more serious action than that.
The Minister of State, Deputy Paul Connaughton, represents the west but he has failed miserably in his three and a half years as Minister of State to bring this serious situation to the notice of his co-Minister of State, Deputy Hegarty, and ultimately to the notice of the Cabinet to ensure that measures are taken to alleviate the situation. I ask the Minister to provide immediate aid. I ask for a subsidy on the abnormally high cost of fertilisers as a matter of urgent priority. Farmers cannot even go on to land to spread fertiliser because it is too wet. This time last year they had their silage cut. We have a short growing season and we must ensure that when the land dries farmers will be in a position to spread fertiliser to ensure sufficient production of grass and silage to carry stock over the forthcoming winter. If we do not do that, not alone will the livestock industry be under threat, but the whole population. I ask the Minister also to restore the AI and lime subsidies so that we can preserve our stocking rates and make up for the serious losses that have eroded cattle numbers.
I also ask that the severely handicapped areas be extended to cover all of County Galway and all of the 12 western counties. A small effort was made in the past few years to extend this. But the farmers in the west, and particularly those in my constituency, are totally frustrated by the exclusion of some areas which, due to the topography of the area, the abnormally long winter, the poor soil and the small fragmented farms, should have been included. The entire western area should be included in the handicaped areas.
I also ask that the time available for the completion of all current projects sanctioned for work, or work which has started under the western drainage scheme and under the western package, be extended for at least 12 months because the land is too wet for farmers to complete the work which they have started. I also ask that all current applications under both of these schemes be sanctioned to ensure that work can go ahead so that land in the western areas can be brought into some type of production.
I specifically appeal to the Minister for Agriculture — because I believe he has not exerted the pressure that he could because of his position — to exert such pressure on the financial institutions. We have a very serious situation. I know serveral people who are in dire straits and the Minister of State, Deputy Connaughton, knows them better than I do because they have to deal with him. Every third farmer in the western areas is in serious financial difficulty. I know people with gross assets of £180,000 and current liabilities of £60,000 who owe money to four or five financial institutions — £20,000 to the ACC and up to £40,000 to various banks and possibly £7,000 to £10,000 to the local authority for a county council loan, and there seems to be nothing the Minister or the Minister of State can do to alleviate the situation.
Farmers are being told nothing can be done. There is no reason why these loans cannot be restructured into one long-term loan taking into account the age of a farmer and giving him up to the age of 66, a long term, to meet his current liabilities. There is no reason why the ACC, as a semi-State body under the control of this State, should not take farmers out of the serious financial plight they are in at this time. There is no reason why criteria could not be drawn up for restructuring so that there would be safeguards by way of mortgage protection insurance on both partners, husband and wife, on the family farm, so that if either spouse dies there is security for the lenders.
I asked the Minister before, and I ask him again tonight, to set up a particular section in his Department to deal with the many farmers who are in serious financial difficulty at the moment, to exert sufficient pressure on the banks and the other financial institutions so that this restructuring can be done. There is no reason why it cannot be done. The best collateral in the country is land and houses and they are readily available from Irish farmers who are in difficulty through no fault of their own.
I also ask the Government to ensure that the £500,000 voted by this House for the Shannon flood scheme is spent because it has not been spent in 1985. The Taoiseach came down to Roscommon waving a big cheque of £1 million for the farmers who were in serious difficulty. I am suspicious and dubious about the large amount the people in County Roscommon got in grant aid under this system. When one takes into account the large numbr of farmers in the other counties, it seems questionable that such a large number of applicants in Roscommon have been accommodated. It would seem that it is for political reasons.
(Interruptions.)
As the Deputy representing East Galway I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Paul Connaughton, to ensure that the farmers in the south east area of County Galway get proper financial assistance from this Government out of the £500,000 unspent which is part of £28 million returned by the Minister for Agriculture at the end of the financial year in 1985.
(Interruptions.)
This was a total reneging on the obligation to the farmers, total discrimination against farmers. I ask the Ministers of State to put sufficient pressure on his Cabinet colleagues to ensure that farmers who are constantly in need of unemployment assistance to sustain their wives and children will not have to meet the strict criteria constantly imposed on them by this Government since they came into office. I ask that all cases under review at present be immediately decided upon and that the unemployment assistance farmers have lost over the last year be restored to them. I urge that all cases at present under review would be immediately decided and that the unemployment assistance that farmers have lost in the last year would be restored to them immediately. I know of farmers who lost their unemployment assistance and had to dispose of their total assets, their farms.
Deputy, it is 8.30 p.m. Would you please move the adjournment of the debate?
I ask the Minister to take immediate action and not to be dillydallying for too long.
The Chair is getting very concerned about it.
Debate adjourned.