Officials from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine are assessing a proposal for a €100 million support package for the pig sector in the wake of a protest this week, Minister Charlie McConalogue has said.
The proposal – which is jointly compiled by the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), Meat Industry Ireland (MII) and the Irish Grain and Feed Association (IGFA) – was submitted to the department earlier this month.
On Tuesday (March 29), pig farmer members of the IFA held a protest outside the department’s offices in Kildare Street in Dublin to call for the proposal to be acted upon.
The minister confirmed in the Dáil this week that the proposal was being assessed by his officials.
However, answering questions from deputies Matt Carthy (Sinn Féin) and Christopher O’Sullivan (Fianna Fáil) he argued that the ask from the IFA “was massive”.
The plan proposes a “50-50 private-public partnership” to be funded through €50 million of state money, and another €50 million put on a long-term mortgage of €1/pig stretched out over 14 or 15 years.
The minister noted that the state’s share in this would equate to €210,000 per individual undertaking.
“I will work and engage with farmers on how I can work with them to support the sector through this,” he said.
The IFA, meanwhile, has said it will “engage intensively” with Minister McConalogue in the coming days to work towards a solution, highlighting: “This is an extremely urgent situation.”
The association’s protest, which took place all day Tuesday, has been paused to allow talks on the proposed rescue package to take place, the IFA confirmed.
Speaking to Agriland yesterday, IFA pig chairperson Roy Gallie said he was calling on Minister McConalogue to “give us his decision on how he’s going to approach this industry, because if we do nothing, it will simply disappear, and that will be good for nobody”.
Meanwhile, IFA president Tim Cullinan said that the “sector’s entire future hangs in the balance and there has to be urgent government action to support pig farmers”.