Joe Flaherty

To emphasise that it is vital farmers have access to crop varieties produced by the latest plant breeding technologies in order to try and overcome the challenges they face, such as pests, disease resistance and perhaps, most significantly, climate change which continue to pose…

To highlight that the extended power of the 4th National Biodiversity Action Plan and the scope of the actions - be they legislative, policy or programme-related - will need to be fully considered. ::To emphasise that it is vital that the plan is adequately funded to give…

To call for a Tillage Expansion and Sustainability Scheme to be urgently introduced to financially support farmers in the sector and halt the decline in the national tillage area.::To highlight that the ongoing weather conditions are placing farmers under serious pressure and…

To communicate to the Irish Government, the vast number of issues and the frustration of farmers on the ground due a number of key issues, including::- The EU Green Deal/Farm to Fork policies and their impact on farm productivity/cost of production;::- The transformation of CAP…

To call on the Minister for Agriculture, Food, and the Marine to support suckler farmers and to play his part in alleviating their concerns in relation to the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) eligibility.::To ensure that the new revised terminal and replacement indices…

To outline the threat posed by Spruce Bark Beetles to the health of Irish forests.::To highlight the scale of the potential risk::According to Ireland's National Forest Inventory 2022, spruce forests account for approximately 65% of the private grant aided forest estate, which…

To highlight that the Agri-Food Regulator was never needed more than now, at a time when farmers were never more in need of a voice and regulation to stand up for their livelihoods in an ever more dysfunctional food supply chain.::To emphasise that if the retailers want to…

To acknowledge that the Unharvested Crop Support Scheme will go some way to addressing the plight of growers most impacted by last year's weather.::To emphasise that there are a number of growers who have uncut crop areas above the 20-hectare maximum limit and are very badly…

To highlight that the increases in staff costs over the past few months in the Horticulture sector are enormous and have left the sector in an unsustainable position.::To point out that it has been a relentlessly difficult period for the sector, from Brexit; the Covid pandemic;…

That the Minister for Agriculture, Food, and the Marine deliver an exemption to the three-crop rule and crop diversification requirements for tillage farmers in 2024.::- The autumn of 2023 was very difficult nationally, Teagasc analysis estimates that 35,000 hectares less of…

To urge the Government to introduce a new scheme to properly support and compensate those farmers affected by Ash Dieback as per the recommendations of the Ash Dieback report established by the Minister of State, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.::To highlight that…

To propose that sufficient funding and resources to be allocated to facilitate implementation of the National Strategic Plan for Sustainable Aquaculture Development and all recommendations of the Aquaculture Licence Appeals Board (ALAB).::To propose that this body must have…

To point out that all horticulture and farmer employers were excluded from the Increased Cost of Business Scheme (ICOB), a once-off grant to help small and medium businesses offset the increase in minimum wage, as the sector is largely exempt from commercial rates. This is…

To highlight Focus Ireland's concerns regarding the Bill and call for pre-legislative scrutiny to be undertaken

Removal of 'mandatory Retirement'