The continuing poor weather is having a major impact on the economy with major disruption of tourism and agriculture in particular. While a number of things can be done by people involved in other sectors to cope with lost business, the situation in agriculture is totally different.
The options open to farmers are far more limited because their business is totally dependent on the weather. Unfortunately, this year the weather broke at the wrong time and farmers have lost the economic advantage which normally occurs in May and June.
Grass produced in this period, either consumed by animals now or stored and fed to stock as fodder later, is at its most nutritious and is cheaper to produce than at any other time of the year. But for many of the country's farmers, this annual window of opportunity has been slammed shut by bad weather.
Farmers who are involved in tillage and vegetable growing have seen their crops rot in the fields as low ground temperatures and rain have led to the spread of blight and cereal diseases.There is also little doubt that there will be cost effects for the Irish consumer as substitute vegetables and fruit will have to be imported to make up for the shortfall here. And there are implications for the rural economy. The good health of most of our provincial towns depends on a healthy agriculture as farming is a finance-intensive operation.
As yet, no one is predicting what kind of impact the outcome of the harvest is likely to have on exports of food and drink which account for 9.2 per cent of GDP, 9.7 per cent of employment and 8.4 per cent of exports. The milk intake at the big processing plants has dropped by up to five per cent in the south and in the east, it has dropped by three per cent.
Beef and sheep outputs are already down and farmers are resorting to feeding substitutes which, according to Teagasc, the agriculture and food development authority, are three to five times more expensive than feeding grass.
It is unlikely, however, that the weather could remain so bad that Ireland would be unable to meet the demand of its overseas customers for food and drink. The farm organisations have been quite muted in recent weeks and have not called for instant compensation. This is a welcome development.