Tillage sector the focus of Oireachtas agri committee this week
The challenges facing the tillage sector at present will be the focus of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food when it meets this week.
The committee will meet on Wednesday (October 1) in Committee Room 4 of Leinster House, beginning at 3:30p.m.
The committee will hear from representatives from the sector, including members of the the Irish Grain Growers Group (IGGG) and the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA).
After that, the committee will hear from officials from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine - deputy chief inspector Louise Byrne and senior inspector Barry O'Reilly.
Speaking ahead of the committee meeting, its chairperson, Fianna Fáil TD Aindrias Moynihan said: "Tillage is a sector under pressure; there is no doubt about that. It is under pressure with input costs and fertiliser prices.
"Alongside that, world grain prices are almost at an all-time low, and even should we get prices right, there can be a bad spring or a bad harvest," the Cork North West TD added.
"The sector is an outlier at the moment. It needs help. We must ensure that we maintain current supports and provide further aid."
Also commenting on the committee, Senator Paul Daly said that, even though it may be positive time for farming, that is not the case for the tillage sector, saying that "the rising tide does not lift all boats".
Speaking to Agriland at the 2025 National Ploughing Championships this month, Tánaiste Simon Harris has said that he intends to make "progress on our commitments" of providing funding to the tillage sector in Budget 2026.
He said he recognises that the sector is "in crisis", made evident by hundreds of farmers turning out to a tillage meeting hosted by the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) on behalf of the crops sector in Naas, Co. Kildare earlier in the month.
He said that there have been a "number of particular, often international factors that have really hit that sector".
"We've tried to provide some degree of support, we need to do more," he said.
He said he is working with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon "to see if we can have proposals for the budget", which will be announced next week.
