Category: Farming

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Farming Rural Ireland Social Issues

“Farmers protest exposes the delays and empty rhetoric around rural commitments,” Mattie McGrath

Press Release

26-11-2019

Independent TD Mattie McGrath has said that the protest planned by farmers for later today is a clear indication of the enormous gap that exists between promises and delivery to rural Ireland. Deputy McGrath was speaking ahead of the protest which is expected to arrive at Merrion Square for 11:00am, with protesters on tractors meeting at 12:00pm:

“Minister Creed must wake up and realise that farmers do not have time to wait around for improved conditions or alleviation from punitive carbon tax increases.

Protestors who are leaving their farms in droves to travel to Dublin today are taking part in an action born out of sheer frustration with the lack of progress on so many issues.

They look at state agencies like Bord Bia and Teagasc and they do not see organisations that understand the gravity of the threats facing farmers.

That is why the protestors have made the root and branch reform of these state agencies one of their demands that needs to be addressed

Increasingly they are also looking at the main farmer representative bodies and asking if they too are really listening.

I and some of my colleagues in the Rural Independent Group have submitted a request for a debate on this issue later today.

We hope that this will be given and that we will finally hear something positive from the Minister. In any event we will be supporting the farmers in their march to Dublin and will be endeavouring to assist them in any way possible,” concluded Deputy McGrath.

ENDS

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Farming Local Issues

“Minister must consider reintroducing Weather Related Crop Loss Support Measures,”

Press Release

05-11-2019

Independent TD Mattie McGrath has called on the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed to urgently consider reintroducing the Weather Related Crop Loss Support Measure Scheme. The Measures, which consisted of targeted crop loss support to assist growers most affected by wet weather harvest conditions, was originally launched in of September 2016. The Scheme closed just one year later:

“No one can be in any doubt that recent and sometimes prolonged periods of heavy rain has threatened the viability of many farm operations.

In fact, when it was launched in 2016 the Minister himself acknowledged that wet weather is particularly problematical for cereal farmers in terms of harvest and yield losses.

The previous Scheme had a very small budget of €1.5 million. This was supposed to provide a financial contribution towards the cost of spring cereals crop losses in excess of 30% by yield, experienced by growers.

Information I have obtained from the Department shows however, that there were just 167 Applicants in 2017, 90 were paid, 60 were rejected, 21 appealed and 4 of these were successful (these are included in the 90).

The other 17 are still outstanding with the Department awaiting requested documentation.

The Minister needs to explore all options in terms of advancing target supports to farmers. That is why I have made this call so that those most affected by the recent rain and wet weather can tap into immediate levels of support to keep them going,” concluded Deputy McGrath.

ENDS

Categories
Farming Local Issues

“Beef Taskforce Chairman appointment is an attempt to return to ‘business as usual.’”

Press Release

08-09-2019

Independent TD Mattie McGrath has said there is widespread frustration and disappointment among farmers at the appointment of former Department of Agriculture secretary general Michael Dowling, as Chairman of the Beef Taskforce. Deputy McGrath was speaking after the Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed confirmed the appointment in response to a parliamentary question on the matter:

“The fact that the Minister has chosen to appoint Mr Dowling – a former Secretary General of the Department of Agriculture and Head of Agri Strategy at Allied Irish Bank, as the ‘Independent’ Chairman is a major blow in terms of establishing initial confidence in the direction that the Taskforce will take.

We have to remember that many farmers will remember Mr Dowling’ in terms of his failure as a senior department official to progress or deliver key commitments outlined in the Programme for a Partnership Government in 2016.

Those Commitments included introducing a framework for Producer Organisations (POs) and the development of POs in the beef sector, to ensure farmers are not just price takers but price makers.

Yet the fact remains that while Mr Dowling was a senior official, there was literally zero progress on those commitments from the departments side.

Indeed, it was a lack of leadership from the department that created so much of the mess farmers found themselves in, and continue to find themselves in.

Despite this, the Minister now wants farmers to accept that the appointment of the former secretary general is a good thing.

What farmers are telling me is that this is nothing more than an attempt to return to business as normal, when what they actually need is someone capable of delivering bold, radical change with a willingness to robustly take on the might of the processors and the retailers,” concluded Deputy McGrath.

END

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Farming Local Issues

“EU Beef Trade Deal an act of financial treachery against Irish agriculture,” Mattie McGrath

01-07-2019

 

Independent TD Mattie McGrath has said the proposed trade agreement between EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and the Mercosur group of countries (Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil) will shatter any faith that the EU has the best interests of Irish farming at heart. Deputy McGrath was speaking after all of the major farming organisations, the majority of the Dáil political parties and the Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed, all accepted that the agreement has the potential to decimate the Irish beef sector:

 

“The plan to allow a further 99 thousand tonnes of South American beef into the EU on an annual basis, at a time when the sector is struggling to cope with Brexit is sheer madness.

 

It is also tells us that despite what they say, and despite what supports are in place, the EU are more than prepared to sell out Irish farming in order to push through larger Trade Deals.

 

This is a wake up call in terms of what the EU Commission’s version of solidarity looks like.

 

We have to remember that suckler farmers already depend on Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) direct payments for their livelihoods, with average incomes just below €13,000 according to Teagasc.

 

If you add to this that a no deal Brexit would decimate the Irish beef sector with World Trade Organization Tariffs likely to push the price of beef produced by farmers down to an estimated €2.50 per kilogram, then the scale of the challenges become clear.

 

Ireland the Irish farming community cannot fight to survive both Brexit and terrible trade deals conducted by our so-called friends in the EU Commission.

 

We have to resist this trade deal with everything we have got if communities the length and breadth of rural Ireland are to have any chance of surviving,” concluded Deputy McGrath.

END

Categories
Farming Local Issues Rural Ireland Transport

 “Minister undermines commitment to effective hedgerow cutting regulations,” Mattie McGrath

07-03-2019

 

Independent TD Mattie McGrath has said there will be significant anger and frustration within rural communities following confirmation that regulations permitting the implementation of certain provisions of the Heritage Act are to be weakened. Deputy McGrath was speaking after the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan, confirmed to him in a Parliamentary Reply that although extensions of managed hedge cutting on roadsides are to be allowed on a trial basis, they will only permit cutting of the current year’s growth:

 

“To say that there is huge disappointment around this news is an understatement. It was understood by almost everyone involved in this issue that once the Heritage Act 2018 was signed into law, which it was in mid-July of last year, then the provisions allowing for hedge-cutting at the start of this August would be in force.

 

We now understand that the Minister will only permit the bare minimum of cutting which totally undermines the actual effectiveness of the “extension.”

 

This demonstrates yet again that Minister Madigan has absolutely zero sense of the urgency surrounding this matter for rural Ireland and indeed for local authorities.

 

People’s lives are being put at risk for every day in which there is a delay in allowing the cutting of overgrown and dangerous hedges or vegetation.

 

Some of the roads I have travelled on recently are places where the hedges are almost meeting each other in the middle of the road and where Stop signs are completely obscured.

 

How the Minister and her officials have utterly failed to grasp that this is an immediate public health risk is beyond me.

 

The Minister and the Department now seem to be sanctioning only the kind of trimming that could be easily done with a pair of garden shears.  Clearly this is not what is required or what was sought by farming organisations.

 

As usual it is the government giving the appearance of action when in reality nothing helpful is being done.

 

What is often required is permission to bring about a significant reduction in hedgerow size given the dangers that they can represent.

 

It is truly ridiculous that the Minister now seems to be categorically ruling that out,” concluded Deputy McGrath.

 

END

Categories
Community Environment Farming Local Issues Rural Ireland

“Serious questions remain about Minister’s fodder deficit statistics,” Mattie McGrath

Independent TD Mattie McGrath has called on the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed to clarify how the estimated national level of fodder deficits are being calculated.

Deputy McGrath was speaking after he challenged the Minister on the matter this morning during the course of Dáil Priority Questions:

“The Minister is being, at best, very disingenuous with respect to the continuing crisis in the levels of fodder supply.

He highlighted to me this morning how Teagasc now estimate the deficit to be down to 11% nationally, from a previous figure of 20%.

Yet not two days ago, on Teagasc’s own website it acknowledged that the most recent survey of winter feed supplies on beef and dairy farms identified typical shortages of around 20-24% in south/eastern counties and 10-15% in north/western areas.

Individual cases have also reported greater deficits exceeding 40%.

This raises very serious questions about the kind of information that Minister Creed is receiving especially since this information is essentially dictating his response.

I have said it previously and it must be said again; the minister is not only absolutely removed from the true scale of this ongoing crisis but he also seems totally unwilling to accept factual feedback from farmers who are still struggling.

We know how this government has a particular fondness for spin and how it manipulates statistics to mask its own inaction.

I want the Minister to fully accept that the fodder crisis is far from over and to listen and act on the reality of what is occurring rather than how he imagines it is going,” concluded Deputy McGrath.

END

 

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Environment Farming Local Issues Rural Ireland

McGrath welcomes extension to the deadlines for spreading of fertiliser’s and Slurry

Independent TD for Tipperary, Mattie McGrath has welcomed the announcement by the Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed, TD that an extension to the deadlines for spreading fertiliser and slurry on farms has been granted by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

Commenting on the news Deputy McGrath said, “I have been inundated by members of the farming community asking that the deadlines for the spreading of fertiliser and slurry be extended, particularly due to the ongoing drought conditions and fodder crisis.

I have been asking the Minister on flexibility on an extension to the closed period for spreading of chemical and organic fertilisers, in order to capitalise on autumn grass growth for fodder production.
It is extremely important that we give the farming community and those most affected by the drought and fodder crisis the opportunity to maximise the growing season and to conserve additional fodder as we approach the Autumn and Winter periods.

The deadline has been extended for chemical fertiliser from mid September until the end of September, and the deadline for the application of organic manures from mid October to the end of October.”
Concluding Deputy McGrath added, “While I welcome this announcement, we need to see a practicable, targeted and workable solution to the ongoing fodder crisis from the Minister and his Department including the importation of fodder where necessary to assist farmers who are at crisis point. Imports of fodder will have to have a key role to play in the range of options available.”

***ENDS***

 

Categories
Community Environment Farming Local Issues Roads Rural Ireland

“Rural anger as Hedge-Cutting Regulations will not be in place before 2019,” Mattie McGrath

Independent TD Mattie McGrath has said there is massive anger and frustration within rural communities over confirmation that regulations permitting the commencement of certain provisions of the Heritage Act will not be in place for at least another year. Deputy McGrath was speaking after the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht confirmed to him that although Section 7 of the Heritage Bill 2016 provides for managed hedge cutting on roadsides and burning these provisions cannot come into force until Regulations are made as provided for under the Heritage Act 2018:　

“To say that there is huge disappointment around this news is an understatement. It was understood by almost everyone involved in this issue that once the Heritage Act 2018 was signed into law, which it was in mid-July, then the provisions allowing for hedge-cutting at the start of this August would be in force.

We now understand that the Minister and her Department had no intention of facilitating this change and have instead told us that it will be at least 2019 before draft regulations are in place.

This demonstrates yet again that Minister Madigan has absolutely zero sense of the urgency surrounding this matter for rural Ireland and indeed for local authorities.

People’s lives are being put at risk for every day in which there is a delay in allowing the cutting of overgrown and dangerous hedges or vegetation.

Some of the roads I have travelled on recently are places where the hedges are almost meeting each other in the middle of the road and where Stop signs are completely obscured.

How the Minister and her officials have utterly failed to grasp that this is an immediate public health risk is beyond me.

The Act has been signed and it must be allowed to be used as a legal basis for rural communities and contractors to get on with the vital work that needs to be done. Further delays are totally unacceptable,” concluded Deputy McGrath.

 

Categories
Community Farming Rural Ireland

“Minister Creed’s response to fodder crisis demands his resignation,” Mattie McGrath

Independent TD Mattie McGrath has called for the resignation of the Minister for Agriculture Food and the Marine, Michael Creed. Deputy McGrath went on to say that the Minister’s management of the drought and fodder crisis is infuriating farmers on the ground for its extended focus on long term measures that will do nothing to alleviate the immediate emergencies that are being faced on a daily basis:

“Minister Creed may not be responsible for the weather, but he is responsible for the policy response from his office and from the Department. That response continues to be nothing short of disastrous.

The measures that are being discussed such as advances for pillar I and pillar 2 payments as well as ‘requests’ for increased flexibility around GLAS scheme fodder provisions, are all things that needed to happen anyway following the prolonged snow and wet winter and prior to this month long heatwave.

The Minister is completely behind the curve in his response. This in turn demonstrates how out of touch he is in terms of the scale of the emergency and how he has failed to heed clear warnings that were given to him.

Farmers are contacting me at their absolute wits end over what they see as the Minister’s top heavy bureaucratic approach and his failure to drive through practical initiatives such as the importation of dried irrigated fodder like alfalfa, among others.

At a time of prolonged crisis like this the farming community needs someone at the helm who can demonstrate clear common sense and not someone for whom the answer to every problem seems to be to organise another meeting to ‘discuss’ the problem, or to patronise farmers by asking them to reach out for help.

This is not rocket science. We may have a catastrophic lack of capacity to generate indigenous fodder, but we do have the capacity to import significant volumes at subsidised rates to alleviate that catastrophe. How the Minister has failed to join those two things together is beyond me.

The Minister has lost all credibility among farmers for his ‘leadership’ during this crisis and for that alone he must go,” concluded Deputy McGrath.

ENDS

 

 

Categories
Community Farming Health Local Issues Press Releases Rural Ireland

“Commitments on Fair Deal welcome, but urgent clarity still required,” Mattie McGrath

Independent TD Mattie McGrath has said that while he welcomes the government’s decision to introduce greater flexibility and fairness to the Nursing Home Support Scheme (Fair Deal Scheme), urgent clarification on important aspects of the changes remain. Deputy McGrath was speaking after Minister of State for Older People, Jim Daly, announced that he had brought a detailed memo to Cabinet requesting the introduction of a cap on the maximum charge that can be applied to farm assets:

“The Rural Independent Group has been working on this issue since the Programme for Government when we insisted that urgent action was required.

We followed that up in May of last year when we placed a Motion before the Dáil that was accepted by a majority of the House.

At that point we expected immediate action. However, we accept that progress is being made.

That being said we are deeply concerned that a significant minority of farmers, especially those who farm alone, will not benefit from this change and will have to endure under the current discriminatory model.

In particular we need urgent clarification on the whether the government intends to reduce the time an asset needs to be transferred prior to entering a nursing home from five to three years.

We also need immediate clarification both on the definition of ‘sudden illness or disability’, which provides for a three year cap to be applied to non-residential assets, and a broadened interpretation of ‘sudden illness or disability’ to include those who have been cared for at home for a period of time prior to seeking nursing home care.

If these issues are addressed then I and my colleagues in the Rural Independent Group will be happy to work with the government in progressing the required legislation as soon as possible after the summer recess,” concluded Deputy McGrath.

ENDS