With the harvest still at a standstill in parts of the north and west, An Taoiseach was aware of the plight of tillage farmers.

"Obviously nobody is going to cut tomorrow with today's rain, and there are many who have failed to get any crops out of the fields this year," Kenny said.

"You get weather events every year and farming can be cyclical in its nature, but there’s a problem here that I hope that we can address somehow and I’ll speak to Minister Creed to see is there any sort of assistance and support that we can give farmers caught in this particular bind," he added.

Minister Creed earlier said that he would convene a forum of all stakeholders in the tillage sector, but warned that the Government was constrained by the absence of agreement on support for tillage farmers at the European level.

"Minister Creed and Minister Doyle are working in very close unison with the farming organisations and together with the European Commissioner to see what can be given," Enda Kenny said. "I know they’ve been meeting with the finance institutions, the banks and the European Commission in respect of the many challenges that are there right across the entire spectrum."

"All-island" Brexit process

An Taoiseach also discussed the implications of Brexit. "Europeans do understand the support that Europe has given to the peace process over the years. Because people voted for the Good Friday agreement in 1998, they did so on the basis of free movement in this island," he commented.

In arguing for a special case for Ireland in Brexit negotiations, he also called for "an all-island process of having the food views of all Ireland in this".

"Clearly the best outcome for us is to situation as close as possible to the status quo," he added.

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Full coverage: Ploughing 2016