Former Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney has said that it is not accurate to use his time in office and the removal of milk quotas in 2015 for the water quality issues being faced by farmers today.
The origin of ash dieback disease in Ireland or when it was introduced remains unknown, Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue said despite Independent TD Richard Boyd Barrett claiming his predecessor, Minister Simon Coveney, identified a source in 2012.
Few farmers will forget the fodder crisis that gripped the sector in the spring of 2013. This week 10 years ago, the Farming Independent reported that fleets of articulated lorries full of hay were arriving daily from Britain and France; farmers in west Clare were donated 1,000 bales of fresh grass cut at Shannon Airport said to be worth up to €40,000 such was the demand for fodder,