Agriculture Supports Dail Éireann — 2026-05-14 ============================================================ Martin Heydon (FG), Kildare South The geopolitical uncertainty in the Middle East is the key driver of this problem. It has put pressure on fertiliser prices and affected the likely availability of fertiliser over the course of the year. As I said, the EU Commission is bringing forward a fertiliser action plan next week. It is anticipated that this plan will focus not only on short-term crisis support but also on structural measures to reduce EU dependency on imported synthetic fossil fuel-based fertilisers. Turning to Deputy Aindrias Moynihan’s point, there definitely is not just a short-term reaction here. We need to learn from what is happening to ensure we are not back in this situation every couple of years whenever there is a conflict. In addition, there are proposals to provide a means of financially supporting farmers through targeted exceptional supports, which we also look forward to seeing the details of. It is expected that these proposals will contain measures to boost domestic production, promote sustainable practices and encourage the increased use of organic fertilisers and enhanced soil health to reduce dependency on synthetic products. In the context of the blockages Deputy Kenny outlined, I am happy to talk to him afterwards about them. I am in Armagh tomorrow morning for a sectoral meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council, where I will be meeting my counterpart, Minister Muir. If the Deputy gives me further details, I will be happy to raise this with him tomorrow to see what the issue might be. I am not aware of impediments, they have not been raised with me, but perhaps the issue is on the Northern side. We can see what the situation is. Deputy Moynihan referred to CBAM and that it is not the time to bring it in. Actually, inadvertently, CBAM has kind of been our friend in that because it was coming in on 1 January this year, importers front-loaded and this meant there was an extra stock of fertiliser in the country. The national fertiliser database gives us very clear information around where we are. Imports of CAN have increased by 55% and urea by 260%, so we are definitely aided by the fact that there is a lot more product in the country and the fertiliser industry continues to import more stocks. My Department is in very regular contact with the fertiliser importer to assess supply issues and address them. Obviously, we have made a point around Article 27a, which we will continue to articulate to the Commission as well. --- 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/2026-05-14/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:56+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-14