Clare farmers struggling to bear fertiliser price rises

DESPAIRING farmers are struggling to bear the brunt of rising costs, an East Clare dairy organisation representative has said.

Clare Chair of the ICMSA, Martin McMahon has condemned a lack of action on the part of the government to address the issue.

The O’Callaghan’s Mills man said farmers “are on the point of despair” waiting for measures to offset rocketing fertiliser costs.

Mr McMahon pointed out that it is now two months since Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue indicated that consideration would be being given to some form of financial aid to farmers who have been hit by a quadrupling of fertiliser costs.

He said the government’s passivity on the matter made a very stark contrast to the urgency shown by other EU member states, with notably less developed agri-sectors.

Referring to Poland’s announcement, in recent weeks, that the European Commission had approved of a €836 million subsidy scheme for farmers under the State aid Temporary Crisis Framework, the well-known farmer’s representative asked whether Ireland had even considered such a proposal. 

“Has our government prepared any proposals to bring to the commission?” he asked.

“Do they intend bringing any similar type of proposal to the commission? Or is the plan – as we suspect – to just sit around and let the farmers take the hit for a four-fold increase in fertiliser prices while all our State energy goes into imposing more regulatory burdens and environmental restrictions on the same group of farmers?”

The ICMSA veteran appealed to Minister McConalogue to address the situation as soon as possible. 

“It’s time for some facts,” he said, “facts that are already established and obvious and facts that are already identifiable, but which are yet to emerge.

“We are already hearing warnings that we could be looking at a fodder crisis next spring.

“I’m not sure that non-farmers completely appreciate the truth of the observation that Ireland’s most important crop is grass: both our multi-billion dairy and beef sectors depend on that.

“If we don’t have silage then we are in serious trouble in both of those. And we’re back here to the old mistake where we could introduce a subsidy now that would address – in some way – the exorbitant cost of fertiliser, but the government seems unwilling to do that.

“That in turn will lead to a fodder shortage next spring at which time the government will have to introduce a fodder subsidy that could have been avoided if they had subsidised the fertiliser that would have given the farmers the silage.

“I appeal again to the Minister to make good on the commitments he seemed to be giving us two months ago to introduce measures that will help with the rocketing costs of fertilisers.

“Not alone is it the right thing to do, but I predict it will end up saving exchequer funding by staving off a more expensive fodder issue next spring.”