Ambition and reality clash
There were euros flying as politicians and captains of industry welcomed the go-ahead for investment of over €150m in a plant which will have capacity to process over 700m litres of milk per year, from the spring of 2015.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny said this Government-supported largest single dairy investment in the history of the State will create over 1,600 jobs, and contribute €400m per year to the economy, with particular benefit to farm families and rural communities.
It was an occasion for positivity and looking ahead, but it clashed with a news announcement from St Vincent de Paul that Irish farmers are going without food and other household needs in order to keep their livestock alive. The picture that springs to mind is hungry Third World farmers slaving to supply raw material to food factories run by exploitative magnates.
The reality is, of course, that an unprecedented long period of difficult weather has seriously damaged the ultimate raw material for the Belview plant — which is grass. And the Irish farmers in difficulty because of that — a difficulty that was not mentioned in any of the Belview press releases — are resilient enough to bounce back from the inevitable occasional weather setback.
But they need help — and not just from the Society of St Vincent de Paul, which has recently been approached by a number of farm families for help to put bread on the table as a result of the fodder crisis, and by others who now find it very difficult to keep children in education.
The Government isn’t giving enough of that help when needed, although the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise and Agriculture were all highlighting the importance of agriculture as they welcomed the Belview launch. They spoke about the tremendous potential for dairy expansion, Ireland as a dairy world-leader, and the resilience and capacity of the sector.
There was no mention of the basic weaknesses at farm level, such as heavy dependence on the EU’s Common Agriculture Policy, the 60% rise in prices of purchased feeds and 70% rise in fertiliser prices since 2006, the 20% rise in purchased feed volumes since 2011, the huge multi-million euro bills dairy farmers have built up at each co-op.
The Government cannot take for granted the ability of farmers to withstand such pressures, and to go hungry if they meet another setback like the bad weather of the past year.
