Tillage Sector: Statements Dail Éireann — 2025-10-15 ============================================================ Paula Butterly (FG), Louth I thank the Minister for the support he has offered to farmers since taking up the role. I have spent many a day and many an hour discussing the issues facing farmers and I thank him for the support, especially for the farmers of County Louth. In his opening statement, the Minister addressed the issues and challenges facing tillage farmers in particular. These include downward pricing, the cost of land and the increasing costs they have to face in order to produce as much as they do year in and year out. We have seen a lower yield from spring crops compared with winter crops. The schemes that have been introduced and the ones that have been kept are therefore very much welcomed by tillage farmers in particular. Tillage farmers are proud people. They rarely come cap in hand looking for supports. While they recognise the importance of this scheme, they also recognise that in order to be sustainable, we must address the issues head-on and continuously. We must offer them solutions where they get value for money for the crops they sow and harvest, whether it is for cattle feed or the production of whiskey and food items. We must work alongside them to ensure they can achieve those goals. This has been a primary concern for them over the last number of years. They continue to sow and harvest but they rarely reap the benefits. We need to work with them not just today or in six months. They do not want a scheme that lasts for one year, meaning they have to come cap in hand once again the next year. When we talk about CAP reform, they want to see a reform that will embrace them, not shut them out. When they talk about producing for future generations, they want to have the confidence to talk to their sons and daughters and even their grandchildren and tell them farming is worth doing. Farming is not just a job. It is not a career. It is the closest thing you will get to being a priest or a nun these days. It is a vocation. It is for the love of the land that we do it. I say that as the daughter of a farmer. We go back six generations, if I am not mistaken. It was never about making money. It was about sustaining the land, keeping the land in the family and passing it on to the next generation. While we put these schemes in place, we must look further than that. Very often when a farmer has talked to me, they have wondered why they would ask their son or daughter to go into the land if there is nothing there for them. They say they have educated their children and sent them out into the world, yet there is nothing for them to come back to. That is our responsibility. We talk about schemes, CAP reform and Mercosur but we also have to talk about the intergenerational aspect and how farming is passed on. It might seem a little separate from statements on tillage, but I have spoken to the Minister about how necessary it is to look at the concept of the young farmer and how, when we talk about our sons and daughters, perhaps we should be looking at the next generation, the grandchildren. Sometimes the father rubs up against the son and very often it is the grandchild who shows the true interest. However, the way we have devised things means that grandchild is shut out of reaping the benefits of any incentives or tax schemes we have. This must be addressed. I thank the Minister for the support. I have attended the meetings, particularly the one in Naas. I thank him and the Ministers of State for their support of the agricultural community. As he said in his opening statement, it is a very significant sector of our economy. It supplies 11,000 jobs, but let us not forget it goes wider than that, into our rural communities. It provides jobs at our local shops and teaching posts in our rural schools. It is the essence that builds on communities and the very rural communities we strive day in, day out to help survive and thrive. It is a sector that, as the Minister said, produces €1.9 billion in the economy, and that is a fraction of what its potential could be if we were to incorporate and recognise the importance of having “Irish” on a label and recognise tillage farmers’ contribution to that premium Irish produce that is sold across the world. I thank the Minister but I stress we must do more not just today but in the years to come. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-10-15/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:13+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-10-15