Ms Michelle O'Neill:

I thank the Chairman. I am delighted to have the opportunity to address the members today. Our Assembly went into recess yesterday but I did not have enough of it and I thought I would come down here today to talk to the members. I am happy to pick up on the points the Chairman mentioned and take questions from members.

A good place to start would be Ireland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union. I congratulate the Southern Government on its successful Presidency in the past six months. From my perspective, I worked closely with the Minister, Deputy Coveney, in that time. He had a very difficult task in trying to get agreement on CAP reform across all the member states and we are delighted that we were able to reach that agreement some weeks ago. It is fair to say that some of the proposals the Commission put on the table initially alarmed the farming industry but the Minister, Deputy Coveney, and the Southern Government can take pride in the fact that we have come a long way from those opening proposals. Some of the key achievements in the discussions have been broadly welcomed by industry, particularly the green proposals which are now better suited to our grassland regions, and also that we have the flexibility to adapt policies to suit our own industry in the future.

While the work in Brussels in the past 18 months was very difficult, the big decisions will be taken when we consult across the island on how we take the process forward and, now that we have that flexibility, the best way to use it to suit the local industry. The time ahead will be challenging and I want to make sure that we work together because there is a great deal of scope for North-South liaison on the policy and implementation issues in the time ahead.

I am keen to discuss with the committee the tackling poverty and social isolation area of work. This is Sinn Féin's second time to hold this Ministry. Tackling poverty was not really on the Department's agenda but for me it has been very successful. In her term, Ms Michelle Gildernew MP brought forward a £10 million package and I have been able to bring forward a package of £16 million. The strategy is about tackling isolation, getting to those hard to reach people, and supporting rural communities to be sustainable into the future. When we meet people who live in rural communities we hear of their isolation and loneliness. They feel they have been forgotten by a number of services, and they often fall between two stools. This strategy aims to better the lives of those people and it was important to me that I was able to reach a successful target in the programme for Government, which brought forward the £16 million package.

A number of areas of work have moved forward around that initiative, including fuel poverty and youth employability. We have been able to bring forward a number of schemes that have been very successful. We have some way to go in that regard but what we have done in changing the direction of the Department and making sure it is focusing on the needs of rural communities has been very successful.

In terms of animal health, we have the animal health and welfare strategy. Given that we are a single island in terms of disease control, it is important that we work together across the island. We have a common purpose and a common interest in eradicating disease and preventing the introduction of disease. I am pleased, therefore, that good progress continues to be made on cross-Border co-operation on animal health and welfare. A good deal of constructive work has been done both by officials and at the North-South Ministerial Council level to deliver the welfare strategy and action plan. It is important that we continue that consistent strategic approach to animal health and welfare policy, which is of significant mutual benefit for all of us across the island.

I am sure members are aware that the Commission published its new animal health regulation on 6 May under the banner Healthier Animals and Plants for a Safer Agri-Food Chain. I believe that will be the vehicle that will allow us to look towards free movement across the island. I look forward to getting into the detail of that and I am sure the committee will have an interest in that area also.

In terms of disease eradication, we have been working hard in preventing the introduction of disease in the island of Ireland. My officials continue to work closely with their counterparts in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to ensure that all necessary measures are taken and that there is a consistent approach to disease control and eradication. It is vital that we have comparable powers to deal with new diseases that may reach our shores. We had a simulation of a disease emergency situation pilot this week that was run across England, Scotland, Wales and the North in which officials from the South got involved also. That is important in terms of testing what we have in place. It is all well and good having something that looks good on paper but until it is tested we do not know its effectiveness. That is positive work and it gives me confidence that we will be able to react quickly and positively to any future outbreak of disease. It also allows us adopt the fortress Ireland approach that has proved to be very useful in the past, particularly in terms of diseases such as bluetongue and foot and mouth. I want to see more of those exercises take place in the future.

I am pleased with the progress we have made towards the eradication of brucellosis. It could be achieved by us by 2014 provided there is no reversal in the downward trend. We are moving in the right direction. We hope to have officially brucellosis-free status by 2015, which would facilitate a reduction in the testing regime resulting in a saving of approximately £7 million to the industry. That would be a great win. It is something we are working very hard to achieve and ensure we do not relax our efforts to reach that target.

I remain fully committed to reducing and ultimately eradicating TB in cattle but, as the members are aware, it is a complex disease. There is no simple solution to it but we have an ongoing positive programme of work. Given that we had increases in the number of cases of TB over a number of months, I am delighted to say the statistics are going in the opposite direction because in the past five months the levels have fallen every month. We hope that continues. We have a rigorous Commission-approved TB eradication programme in place, which is a priority for me.

Members may have noted that I announced recently our intention to proceed with a test, vaccinate and release, TVR, approach in respect of wildlife intervention research. The aim of such intervention is to test the effectiveness of the approach on the level of tuberculosis in badgers and in cattle. Put in its simplest terms, it involves catching badgers and testing them. Those that are negative will be vaccinated and released, while those that are sick will be dealt with. As this has not been done anywhere else, we look forward to ensuring this study gets under way and that we get the information we need. We have chosen two geographical target areas that have high badger-to-cattle ratios and I look forward to bringing forward this work. As for plant health, just this morning the Minister of State, Deputy Tom Hayes, and I launched the all-Ireland Chalara fraxinea control strategy. This work has been ongoing since we have had instances of the aforementioned disease and is a good concrete example of good co-operation. I worked closely in the past with the former Minister of State, the late Shane McEntee, and I look forward to working with Deputy Tom Hayes in the future as we work towards dealing with all plant health diseases.

The pricing of milk is another issue I am aware the joint committee is keen to discuss. Our dairy industry makes an important contribution to the agrifood industry in the North and to employment in rural areas. Consequently, producers must receive a good price both for their hard work and to remain viable, and fairness in the supply chain has been a major issue we have been trying to tackle. In itself, pricing obviously is a commercial matter and there are limitations to what we can do to help. Nevertheless, we have been encouraging the industry to focus on improving efficiency and to ensure its product mix reflects the increasing demands of consumers. This should help to improve returns and I understand that global markets are likely to remain positive for the remainder of this year. I am also optimistic that our dairy sector has the potential to grow further and to exploit the opportunities arising from the predicted expansion in the world population. The dairy sector has contributed to the agrifood strategy board's action plan, Going for Growth, and I hope it will grasp these opportunities and that producers will be rewarded with a good price for their quality products. Going for Growth is a strategy we launched recently in the North that is comparable with the Harvest 2020 strategy. It considers targets for each sector and looks towards the challenges and the position in which we need to be in the future. I consider it to be a highly positive piece of work and I will be happy to pick up on that if anyone is interested in discussing it.

Finally, on all-Ireland inshore fishing, we are engaged at present in consultations with stakeholders on a sustainable development strategy for our inshore fisheries. The strategy highlights the key challenges currently facing the sector and offers recommendations on how, in partnership with central government, it could move forward with the aim of securing a sustainable and profitable inshore sector in the North. When the consultation period closes on 2 August and responses have been considered, my officials will be happy, where possible, to engage with colleagues to determine what areas of mutual interest could be progressed on a cross-Border basis. While that is a short and probably too brief run-through some of the issues, I would be happy to discuss them further.