Action needed now to help our growers – Doherty

Irish horticultural producers must be supported by Government amid skyrocketing energy costs and supply shortages, a Fine Gael Senator has said.

Senator Regina Doherty said: “I recently met with representatives of the Irish Farming Association in my constituency of Dublin Fingal.

“Growers right across Ireland are going through an extremely difficult period right now. The steep increases in energy costs that we are all experiencing, combined with a supply chain crisis, are exacerbated when it comes to an industry that is already struggling.

“The Horticulture Exceptional Payment Scheme (HEPS) was introduced in the wake of Putin’s War in Ukraine as a support measure to be provided as a once-off payment to certain growers. It was designed to ensure the short-term security and thus the long-term viability of the sector, notably commercial growers of glasshouse high-wire crops, field vegetables and mushrooms.

“In March, I called for additional supports for Ireland’s fruit and vegetable growers amid clear shortages of food in the UK. With our horticultural industry growing less viable, and with certain growers struggling to even survive, the situation is equally, if not more, urgent today.

“I want Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, to commit to a renewal of HEPS, and to do so now. It is exactly a year now since the original scheme was introduced, yet cost issues still exist. We need to continue to support our horticultural growers in every way we can to ensure local producers can keep producing.

“There is a view among growers that there will not be a second iteration of HEPS. The notion of that lifeline being cut is terrifying for them. I’m calling on the Minister to make a statement as to whether or not he intends to renew the scheme and to do so immediately.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures”, Senator Doherty concluded.