Pressure continues to mount on Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed to do more for farmers and possibly introduce financial supports for farmers who are affected by the fodder crisis.

The Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine will meet on Wednesday 11 April to address the ongoing fodder crisis, with Minister Creed to appear before the committee.

On Thursday, committee chair, Pat Deering said: “The fodder crisis is of huge concern to farmers right across the country.

“We as a committee are greatly troubled by reports of animals going hungry and farmers being unable to access adequate fodder.

“The bad weather we have experienced over the past number of months has resulted in below-average grass growth at a time of year when animals would usually be back outside in the fields.

“The committee has called this meeting during the Dáil recess in order to engage with the Minister on the measures his department will be putting in place to address this issue.

“While the Minister confirmed today that his department is working on rolling out a scheme supporting the importation of fodder from outside the country, the committee will also wish to discuss possible financial supports for farmers.”

Call for Minister to be sacked

Fianna Fáil TD for Sligo-Leitrim, Marc MacSharry this week called for the minister to be sacked over his response to the fodder crisis.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal MacSharry said that the farming community needs capable people in Dublin working on their behalf.

“Minister Creed has shown that he is not capable of doing so. It is too little too late. We need capable people in ministries,” he said.

Calls for support for the fodder crisis were made back in October, when it became apparent farmers would find themselves short of fodder, MacSharry said, but these calls were ignored.

Calls for clarity

Fianna Fáil spokesperson on Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue has called on Minister Creed to urgently provide clarity surrounding the transport subsidy which he has said will be made available to co-ops and fodder agents to tackle the serious shortage affecting farmers across the country.

McConalogue said that as far back as September last year, farmers and farming organisations were vocal of warnings that an impending crisis in fodder supply would occur should it not be urgently addressed.

Months on and here we are; Minister Creed's blatant refusal to act in advance has led farmers nationwide into an emergency situation where fodder reserves are fast running out.

"The Minister’s failure to address the situation has had a direct impact on the severe conditions affecting farms.

“As of today the Minister has still not clarified or published the details of the transport subsidy scheme he says he has planned to assist with importing fodder into the country.

“There is a degree of confusion among farmers, co-ops and fodder agents as to who is eligible to avail of the subsidy, how to go about accessing it and what it entails.

“Minister Creed needs to outline a clear plan to deal with this crisis and more specifically publish the details of this scheme so that co-op’s and agents can get on with importing fodder.”

Dire situation

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin’s Martin Kenny has said that the Minister must take responsibility for the dire situation that farmers find themselves in now.

“Repeated requests for him to act and prevent a national emergency like we have now, fell on deaf ears as he spun us the same story that there was enough fodder in the country and that his Department was monitoring the situation.

“The Minister and his Department have serious questions to answer as to how they allowed the fodder crisis become so serious if his Department was monitoring the situation. Everyone knew that farmers failed to get second cuts of silage last August and September.”

Everyone knows it has been raining since last July and livestock had to be housed early. We all know that it has being an exceptionally long winter.

“Anyone who has a lawn knows there is no grass growth,” he said.

Kenny also said that it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that there was going to be an issue with fodder supplies.

“However, the extent of the Minister’s analysis of the fodder crisis was monitoring the advertisements of hay and silage on done deal, hardly what one would expect from a Minister for Agriculture living up to his responsibilities.

“The fodder transport scheme that the Minister introduced was a shambles and has only made the fodder crisis worse."

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