Michael Fitzmaurice demands fair support for tillage sector

I welcome Dr Trudy and speaking on this, whether you come from an area that would not grow tillage or not, it is awfully important whether you are in suckler, sheep or in dairy or whatever, the people that grow the tillage to get the straw is ferociously important and I think Minister, we have a decision to make. We look at the prices this year and in fairness the protein aid is a good subsidy what is being given for that, but in fairness to the people that are growing barley or wheat or oats or whatever, it is totally different in game. They are taking a bad price and look at the playing field, this is the big question that has to be addressed. We have decided to sign up to deals with other countries, third-party countries, that have basically different terms and conditions for growing their product, simple as that. So either way give a level playing field to everyone where if you look at the other countries they are able to have genetically modified and use all that crack and then Europe will take it in, whereas in Europe, and I believe rightly so, they cannot do that and they have to grow up, but they are at a disadvantage and we should reward people for doing things right and in fairness, look at it, the figures will stand and your own guys have given the figures there. We have lost 40% in 40 years. The facts are that if we do not listen to the tillage sector, if we do not sort the tillage sector, we will end up basically to get less and less. Because you know, and everyone else knows in here, that the pressure, if you are renting land, the pressure that is on it, from be it the dairyman or some other person, or for other uses, is ferocious at the moment. They did not make any more land lately as far as I know, so the pressure is on. And who will lose out is the most vulnerable sector that will be under pressure, that is what will lose out. And we in this parliament and a government has to decide, are we going to save that sector, are we going to actually increase that sector in productivity. If you look at these climate targets that we dream about, and what we are going to achieve by 2030, be it in all the different sectors, we look that we are going to increase tillage as if everyone was going to pull out a plough tomorrow. That is not going to happen, but the reality of it is, if we do not give incentives, we are not going to have them there. And we have to decide, do we want them or do we not? In my opinion, it is ferociously important. As a sector, even in your own area Minister, it is a huge area for West of Ireland, trucks goes up to bring down the straw every year. It is ferociously important for the West of Ireland. It is not that the big amount of tillage is grown in the West, but we get that product. And if you listen to the figures, what it is worth. And also the people that grow basically distillers grain and all that, they need to be looked after as well. And I would call on the drinks companies to step up to the mark on that, because you can keep, you know, you can keep beating at someone. They will get out of it after a while, and it is very hard to get somebody back at something. So I would urge your Minister, like, this year, they are going to get the same or maybe a small bit more than what Mr. McGonagall announced last year. That is not new money then. They had the same feel for that money last year. But there is no new money coming down the road for them. And if we want to help those people, we have got to set it out. If it is in the next budget, you need to see it, what we are going to do. There is no good for any of us during the election making promises and then not delivered and what we are going to say we will do. We need to make sure that those people are helped out as best as possible. Thank you very much.