I want to raise again with the Taoiseach the savage increase in the cost of fertiliser. I did this before on 3 November last. I want to know what the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Taoiseach and the Government have done to get the price of fertiliser down to an acceptable or reasonable price for small suckler farmers in south Kerry and for dairy producers and tillage farmers in mid and north Kerry. This time last year urea was €330 a tonne. It is now €930 a tonne. Nitrogen was €240 and is now €690. Pasture sward was €350 and is now €700; and 18:6:12 is now €790. One farmer had a bill of €7,000 last year, but it will be €17,000 this year. Farmers will go broke and fast, especially small farmers in Kerry.

The main driver of the increased fertiliser costs in the EU and here is the massive increase in natural gas prices due to the green agenda to decarbonise electricity generation and also the EU policy to protect EU fertiliser producers by imposing levies on Russia and other countries supplying fertiliser into the EU. I am calling on the Taoiseach to intervene with the EU and get these levies abolished. Last Wednesday I attended the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine and with others asked Fabien Santini of the EU Agriculture Commission what could be done to help our farmers in Kerry and around the country. From his reply we understand that each member state will be allowed to provide unique farmer support through relaxation of the state aid framework. This facility is only allowed until June this year. At that meeting, the Green Party Deputy Brian Leddin outlined his pleasure at the increased cost of fertiliser to force crippled farmers into organising farms.

Is the Green Party preventing the Taoiseach from helping the farmers? If the Taoiseach cannot do something about fertiliser costs, in order to survive farmers will have to increase the cost of their products to the consumer. Otherwise, they will go bust. We all have been told recently that the cost of groceries to the housewife has gone up by €780 in the last year. This figure will go up by double or more in the coming year because of the farmers' increased cost of production. Are housewives and consumers prepared to pay the extra cost of food as a result of the badly thought out policies of the Green Party and this Government?

This will also impact on the availability of fodder and increase its price. Farmers have been wrongly attacked and vilified by the Green Party and many others in this Chamber and outside of here, and are being blamed for everything even though they produce good healthy food of the highest quality while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, abiding by all the Department and European regulations.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I would point out that close to €10 billion in total between European Union and Exchequer funding will support over 120,000 farm families over the next Common Agricultural Policy period between 2023 and 2027. The Minister, Deputy McConalogue has worked very hard on behalf of Irish farmers to get the best package possible in the context of the common agricultural strategy over the next number of years. In addition to that, close to €4.5 billion has been paid out to farmers since June 2020 through various schemes like the basic payment scheme, the areas of natural constraint scheme, the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme and the beef scheme. Average family farm income increased during 2020 and again in 2021 for the third year in a row, reflecting good output prices.

However, the Deputy is correct when he says that there is very significant concern on the cost side in 2022 for farmers in the context of what he has outlined, the price of fertiliser. The high price of natural gas, which is a key ingredient in fertiliser production, as the Deputy knows, has caused very significant disruption in production in the international fertiliser industry. This is a global problem and issue. Large increases in energy prices are a Europe-wide phenomenon. It is a combination of global demand for gas as economies recover from Covid as well as lower flows of gas from Russia. Given that Europe receives a large amount of its gas supply from Russia, the geopolitical impact of the current build-up of Russian troops at the Ukrainian border may even drive gas and fertiliser prices up further.

The Minister, Deputy McConalogue, has raised these rising costs at the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting.

He has called on the European Union Commission to consider all options to ease the pressure on farmers at this time. That includes monitoring the evolution of markets linked to agricultural impacts, particularly in relation to fertilisers; the question, which I think the Deputy raised, as to whether the imposition of anti-dumping duties on fertiliser imports continues to be appropriate, given the current crisis; and for this matter to be examined as a priority. The Minister has raised that with the Commission.

This is nothing to do with national politics or the particular political perspectives that parties may have in respect of climate and so on, but side by side with that, the Minister is working on giving supports through a number of measures, including soil fertility, greater use of clover and multispecies swards, to reduce dependency on chemical nitrogen fertiliser. That work is under way. That will help but the bigger issue is to try to deal with the current crisis in gas price increases that is feeding into the fertiliser problem. It is a very significant issue. I know that the Minister has asked Teagasc to develop a roadmap for assisting farmers in the short term as well as offering some long-term solutions.

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply but I am not satisfied that we are helping farmers with their current plight. I am asking him to ensure that the anti-dumping levy is withdrawn. That would account for at least €40 or €50 per tonne. I am asking the Government to subsidise the cost of the fertiliser. If we look far enough ahead, we will see that the current situation will increase the cost of food as well. If the cost to the farmer of what he or she produces increases, who will pay for it only the consumer? The Dáil has heard all day from other parties and Members that the cost of living, including the cost of diesel and everything else, has increased. The cost of food will go mad if the Government does not do something about it.

The current situation will also create a fodder crisis at the end of the year. Farmers cannot afford it. I will give an example of a man whose bill was €7,000 last year. It will be €17,000 this year. That is savage for a small farmer trying to survive. If farmers cannot grow grass, they will not produce grass, milk or grain, so it-----

I thank the Deputy, but his time is up.

I do not doubt the seriousness of the issue that the Deputy has raised. It is very serious. It has to be dealt with on a Europe-wide basis. The Minister is engaging with the European Commission and his colleagues at the European Agriculture and Fisheries Council to see what can be done. In addition, we have, through the carbon tax revenue, ring-fenced significant funding for a new ambitious agri-environmental scheme to be rolled out under the next Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, programme. That new agri-environmental scheme will target in the region of 50,000 participants with a maximum payment of up to €10,000 to individual farmers. We will also use revenue over the period in other ways to support materially and in a real way farm incomes, but we have an issue that all goes back to the energy issue, the flow of gas and gas supplies across Europe and globally. That is at the core of this. I have no doubt that the Minister will continue to work with his colleagues on the Council and with the Commission on trying to reduce the pressure on farmers as a result of this.

Will the Government subsidise fertiliser?