Peadar Tóibín
Question:92. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the steps his Department is taking to encourage young people into the agricultural sector. [17709/23]
View answerThursday, 20 April 2023
Questions (92)
Oral answers (18 contributions)
It is important that we inject some reality into this debate today. The Government's policy towards agriculture is one of managed decline. That is the truth.
Come on.
Every year, there are more farmers leaving the farming sector than there were the year before. Only 5% of farmers are aged 35 or under. This is an incredibly small cohort of people. The Minister must know that there is an explosion of anger in rural Ireland about the approach of the Fianna Fáil-Green Party-Fine Gael Government towards agriculture. What is the Government doing to get more young people into the sector?
The Deputy is badly out of touch. I travel around the country all the time and have travelled to every county in the country when putting the CAP programme together. I also travel around the country regularly engaging with farmers in every county and there is strong recognition of the funding the Government is putting into agriculture and backing agriculture. The Deputy should know that in the current CAP, of which this is the first year, we have increased our national funding commitment by 50%, which is the largest ever increase in CAP funding in respect of national co-funding. That is what the Government is doing. We are doing all we can and will continue to do more where we can. Everyone would like there to be more but we are delivering in a significant way with very strong schemes and that is recognised.
Undoubtedly, there is a challenge with generational renewal. Farming is one of the most rewarding professions we have. It brings people through the full life cycle of nature, from animals being born on a farm each spring to seeing crops harvested, recognising the full cycle of natural life. However, it can also be a challenging profession and it does have significant demands and responsibilities. In the current CAP, we have focused payments to encourage young farmers to enter the sector. There is very significant funding there. We have seen an increase and are now dedicating 3% of direct payments to help young farmers establish their farming business. This amounts to approximately €35 million per year for qualifying young farmers. We also have the 60% grant rate for on-farm investments where farmers are constructing buildings or sheds. There are over 600 separate on-farm investments for which a young farmer can apply for 60% funding. The figure was 500 and we have added an additional 100 investments for which farmers can apply. Those are the supports that are available. While this is a challenge, at Government level we are doing all we can to provide support and funding.
The farmer’s life cycle is dependent on the price of the product and the cost of producing it. That is the most important factor in this whole process. Every grant the Government gives does not make up for the fact that every year, farmers are getting less and less from the supply chain in farming. Most of the profit ends with the factory or supermarket. The Government is refusing to get involved in that element. I know that young farmers are voting with their feet and going to work in other countries such as Australia. Why is this? It is because they are witnessing the stressful arguments between their parents late at night about mounting debt on the farm. That is the reality. Until we focus on the price of beef, dairy, sheep, pigs and poultry in this State and get to some level where a floor is set at the cost of production for farmers, we are going to get into further trouble.
The truth is farmers are seeing finger wagging from arrogant and detached Green Party politicians and their south Dublin Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil colleagues on this. There is a detachment from rural and regional Ireland in where this Government is going and that needs to be fixed.
There is no substance to what Deputy Tóibín is saying. The Government is massively committed to supporting farmers at all stages of their careers. The Deputy should have noticed the historic step we have taken in the legislation we are bringing through the Houses, which will complete that journey next Wednesday, in relation to the new food regulator. The Bill is very much about ensuring there is transparency and fairness throughout the food supply chain. Some 90% of the products we produce in this country go abroad. Regardless of which market in which part of the world is involved, the Bill will provide transparency to ensure as much value as possible is delivered to where most of the work happens, namely, the farm gate. We are not selling a pig in a poke to farmers in the way Deputy Tóibín is. He had a Bill, although I have not heard about it in the last few years.
Fianna Fáil supported that Bill-----
It was three or four years ago.
-----in opposition.
The Deputy is constantly peddling a narrative that it is just a matter of setting a minimum price, saying what the price should be and giving that price to farmers. The reality is that 90% of the food we produce goes abroad and is sold abroad. We have to work in that market situation. The Deputy should recognise what we are delivering and stop peddling a pig in a poke which has no substance or reality.
Peddling a pig in a poke - that is incredible. Fianna Fáil supported the Aontú Bill in opposition and then went against it in government. One could not get a better definition of that turn of phrase than that.
If the Minister wants examples of where the Government is letting down farmers, he should look at the Brexit adjustment reserve fund. Aontú found out that €150 million of that fund which was meant to be focused on farmers has been diverted towards climate measures. The Government said it could not find ways to spend it in the agriculture or fishing sectors, which is incredible given the state they are in. Aontú also found out that the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications reallocated €1.5 million from the just transition fund to the climate activities of the UN. Where there is money available to help farmers, it is being refocused elsewhere. That is a major issue. Farmers are being scapegoated at a time when Ministers of this Government created 180 tonnes of CO2 emissions on their St. Patrick’s Day trips. We should contrast the scapegoating of farmers on climate change with the actions of the Government on climate. I am asking for concrete evidence of steps being taken to help young farmers to become aware that there is a living to be made out of farming sufficient to raise a family.
The Deputy should not mistake our allowing and facilitating his bringing a Bill before the Dáil as somehow supporting what he is doing. I see nothing of substance coming from him. He stated that Aontú found this and that out but Aontú has proposed nothing, not one scheme. It has not proposed anything in relation to the bar. The Deputy is running around trying to find a figure here or there and counting CO2 emissions from St. Patrick’s Day trips. That is the sort of stuff he is at. It is nothing that is going to deliver anything for farmers.
The trips produced 180 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
What we are doing over here is rolling up our sleeves and getting on with the serious business of delivering serious measures for farmers such as the food regulator Bill. Meanwhile, the Deputy is off peddling the fallacy that if we just introduced a law saying a farmer should get this price or that price, the world would be great.
What about the Brexit adjustment reserve fund?
It is time to get on with it and deliver a bit of substance.
What about the just transition fund?
We are doing the hard work of trying to support farmers and, importantly, supporting young farmers through the various and many measures we have introduced for them.