There are eight million cattle in this State, the highest number on record, and there is a grave shortage of fodder to feed them because of bad weather accompanied by a price fall as serious as any in living memory for beef cattle. It is associated with the collapse of overseas markets in Russia and the Middle East and the continuing effects of BSE, which has led to a fall in European Union markets as well. Meat factories are turning cattle away.
It seems to take photographs of dead or dying animals to bring this crisis to widespread public attention in urban Ireland, despite protests by farmers and their organisations. There should be no doubting its seriousness and the urgent need to tackle it effectively. Reports from the west of Ireland indicate cattle pounds are full and that many stray and hungry animals are on the roads, their ear tags having been removed to prevent them being traced back to their owners. At issue is the immediate problem facing many thousands of farmers who cannot afford either to feed their cattle or to dispose of them. A method must be found to ensure that those most in need are given whatever assistance can be made available.
The £21 million package adopted before Christmas was belated and quite inadequate as to funding and targeting. It was justifiably criticised at yesterday's meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine. The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, told the committee members that he would announce a further package in coming days after negotiations with the Minister for Finance. It is essential that it be directed at those most in need. Given that many farmers will need help at least until late spring, because of the weather, the sums involved will be substantial.
There is also the question of how the funds are distributed as between larger and smaller farmers and indeed whether this crisis will force a long-term restructuring of the cattle industry, which remains one of the biggest in the State. Its impact cannot be dissociated from reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy under discussion in the current Agenda 2000 negotiations and in the next round of the World Trade Organisation talks. In the widest sense, the future of rural Ireland and its social structure is at stake.
A more focused public debate is essential for this important and strategic industry. Despite the falling numbers of those directly engaged in agriculture, it sustains many living in towns and provides the backbone for the developing food industry. It is impossible, too, to separate environmental issues from agricultural ones and both from ensuring the sustainable development of the Irish countryside, upon which so much of the tourist industry is based. EU policy is increasingly targeted at paying farmers directly for their caretaker role. While it is essential to provide optimum conditions for the most competitive farmers, a balance must also be struck between their interests and those of the much more numerous smaller farmers who will continue to require public subsidy long after this fodder crisis has been overcome.