Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

A number of issues are relevant in the context of trying to reach the 5% target and supports are very important in that regard. These proposals contain a lot of stipulations or potential stipulations and it is clear that it is not going to be easy to reach agreement on these matters. Does Mr. Dillon have any idea what type of compromise text is being prepared? Labelling, in particular, is very important and the role of retailers as well as producers must be considered in all of this.

Mr. Dillon made reference to the transfer of organic controls to the new official controls regulations - what will that mean in practice? Will it be another bureaucratic quango which will only be a hindrance to the achievement of targets? Will the imports regime be developed in parallel with the development of the labelling regime or will we end up with a situation similar to that which pertains to products being labelled as Irish which were only given a light dusting of something here?

This is a very complex and technical area and it will be interesting to see what proposals emerge from the Italian Presidency.