Tillage Sector: Statements Dail Éireann — 2025-10-15 ============================================================ Joe Neville (FG), Kildare North Although I am a TD for Kildare North, I do not profess to have the same knowledge of the tillage sector or indeed the agrisector as the previous speaker, Deputy William Aird, who is from my neighbouring county of Laois. At the same time, I can speak to our unity in regard to the farmers of Ireland and the work they do. Four weeks ago I attended a public meeting in Killashee House. Deputy Aird was there along with a number of public representatives. Most public representatives in attendance were from this side of the House and indeed from our party. In fact, I think all of them were from our side of the House. There were 800 people in the room. We counted as best we could. I sat off to the side but at the front was the Minister, Deputy Heydon, who was there for two to three hours. He spoke to 800 tillage farmers and gave his views. More importantly, he listened to what was being said from the floor. He engaged in-depth and took the hard questions. It was not easy to stand up that night with people's livelihoods at stake. Ultimately, that is what we are here to represent tonight. We are representing those people, those families, those dreams and that future. We want to represent them in the best way possible. As for my background in farming, in my housing estate in Leixlip, there is not much farming. However, my dad came from a dairy farm and my mother from a small farm in rural north Roscommon. There was no tillage farming. However, every day we benefit from and live off the tillage farmers in this country, so we must protect them. It was evident that night in Killashee House that there was an awareness that costs are increasing. The yields were strong this summer but the prices have not increased in line with those costs. We hear about the costs and we have to listen to that. As someone who was not as knowledgeable as the other people in the room, what came across to me was that there was competition in regard to grain from all across Europe, especially from eastern Europe. Our farmers have been competing but have possibly been finding it difficult because the standards being set here and the difficulties they have had with those standards maybe do not apply to the competition. In Kildare we know that those tillage farmers form the backbone of our rural economy. It is more evident in Kildare South, the Minister's constituency, although we see it all across Kildare North, around Naas, Clane and Straffan. They also sustain other businesses so when we are talking about the tillage farmers, we are talking about all the other businesses they support. The Minister recognised the pressures facing those farmers. He raised it in the parliamentary party and no doubt at Cabinet and was able to get €50 million extra for tillage supports, for the protein aid scheme, the straw incorporation measure and indeed other measures. I dealt with TAMS in my previous career and there was an extension of that. While that might not be a direct payment, it helps capital infrastructure to benefit the future. I am conscious that these big issues cannot be resolved in one budget. That is the difficulty we are facing. The Minister alluded to that in his speech. Across the Government, this House and the country we are all conscious that we are trying to move away from one-off measures in other areas. However, we made sure the tillage farmers, to a degree, were looked after. We dealt with it in the best possible way. The Minister is working hard and will continue to do so to ensure we have the proper structures in place for the tillage farmers, whether it is prioritising the soils, ensuring the smallholders are able to stay in it or, more importantly, converting some of those who have moved away from tillage farming to grass farming back into tillage. As Deputy Aird correctly outlined, we have lost 40% of our tillage land in the past 40 years. That is something we need to replace. Deputy Aird also referenced the difficulties of the beet farmers and what we have lost there. They are the issues we have to think about. We are not dealing with a budget or the situation in the here and now, rather we are dealing with the future of Ireland, our self-sufficiency and how we will have food for future generations. Over the past number of years we have all seen the difficulties with supply chains as they might have existed during Covid-19 in terms of China. Ultimately, food is the one supply chain we can fix and that we do not want issues around or being stuck in ports. We need to ensure we can keep those farmers at work. From a business perspective, we know tillage is a strategic sector for the country. It helps other businesses. Deputy Moynihan alluded earlier to the impact on Irish whiskey. That is only one part of it but it shows the importance of it. If Ireland is not known for its great food, great dairy, great beef and great tillage, then what are we as a country? Ultimately, agrifood is where we came from, it is something we specialise in and are great at. More importantly, we need to ensure that we can keep that into the future for future generations and keep that tillage flame alive. I will endeavour to work on it as best I can on behalf of the farmers of Kildare North and with my colleagues around the country and especially with the Minister, Deputy Heydon, and the rest of the Government. --- 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