Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Commissioner and his delegation to Ireland. It is good to see Commissioners touring member states. There was a reluctance to do this some years ago but I am delighted to see it is a growing trend and long may that continue. I have a few questions. How does the Commissioner feel about the possibility of having an EU-wide health regime where basic fundamentals would apply in all countries? This is the case in the United States, for instance, and I am not making a direct comparison, but there are some rules that apply across every state in the United States while others do not, thankfully. How well could the Commissioner see something like that working?

My other question is on animal health and the issue of pharmaceutical residuals in animals. To what extent has that been curtailed effectively? Have we got to the stage where antibiotics are being carefully used that their use does not in any way jeopardise human health? To what extent does the Commissioner see improvements taking place in that area, with the view to ensuring that Europe's animal health is the best globally? Its traceability is, I presume, the best and will continue to be so. Does the Commissioner see any threats to that?

On the issue of human health, I notice that Ireland is about half way down the good side of most of the graphs the Commissioner showed us today. How does he see the use of antibiotics and other medicines across Europe affecting people's health in the future? Have adequate steps been taken to ensure that we do not have overprescribing or overdosing and that we not inherit the worst aspects of what can follow as a result?

The Commissioner also mentioned the environment, which is, of course, very important to all of us. How does he see Europe marrying the objectives of high quality food production and attaining high quality health standards with complying with environmental requirements around greenhouse gases, etc.? I do not want to ignite the debate, which can get quite flammable from time to time, but we all have to eat, no matter where we are. Some people will always have dramatic responses, such as telling us to stop eating or stop producing food. We cannot do that. Does the Commissioner see the European Union reaching best practice in terms of the environmental balance?

The buying power of the Single Market has been mentioned at this committee on numerous occasions in respect of various drugs, both new drugs and existing drugs that have gone off patent under the eight-year patent rule. Does the Commissioner see the European Union, across all the member states, getting the best value for money for these drugs and for new technology in the whole area of drug production?