Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegates for their presentations in which a number of really interesting points were raised. Luckily, Deputy David Cullinane picked up on some of them. There are one or two areas in which we could probably have a disagreement, but this is not the place in which to do so. I may have had different views from those of the delegates on the habitats and birds directives which have a role to play in the national pollination plan and the quality and sustainability of our agricultural products, albeit there may be flaws in their implementation. However, our focus here is on the bigger picture and the European Union.

I welcome the key points made about rural development. It is not an accident that the issue of rural development has fallen off the agenda. It maps very closely the changes made since 2008 and the focus on national fiscal targets as the top-line main message in terms of the European Union's engagement, semester products and regional development targets having falling by the wayside. The message on balanced regional development is crucial not only economically but also socially in terms of cohesion and co-operation. We are seeing across Europe that where there is a failure to deliver balanced regional development, it has very severe consequences for the European project. I would really like to hear the delegates' thoughts not just about the economic but also the social importance of reframing regional development in the European Union. What are the delegates' thoughts about the way in which high level fiscal targets alone may be failing to capture the issue?

The fiscal rules and the national planning framework have been covered. Macra na Feirme highlighted eloquently young farmers being the lifeblood of rural communities. Sometimes, the charts we see from the Commission suggest employment moves around. While there may be the same number of jobs, transplanting people out of their communities is different. There is a different question about the quality of employment created through schemes such as the European Youth Guarantee. I worked with a group in Wexford. There was an urban pilot European Youth Guarantee scheme. I wonder if the delegates' would support the Wexford group in what it was pushing for, a rural pilot European Youth Guarantee scheme to address specific issues in delivering for young people in rural areas. There is a different set of challenges and obstacles to creating employment in that context. I would love to hear the delegates' thoughts on the matter.

A key area on which I want to focus is trade. I commend both groups but the ICMSA, in particular, for diving into the detail of the trade agreements the European Union is negotiating.

We can often be pushed into simplistic narratives such as that we are either for or against trade or Europe. That does not really work. We can be very much for Europe and for trade, but want a better kind of European trade deal within that. I welcome the call from Macra na Feirme for full impact assessment of all the trade deals. I echo the concern about the danger of the suggestion from Europe under scenario 4, the fast-tracking of trade deals.

Mercosur has been talked about in detail. There are very specific concerns there. I would like to hear the witnesses' thoughts about Mercosur, CETA, which I have worked on, and what they think the European Commission should be learning from the flaws in the previous model of trade deal. We are about to give the European Commission a new negotiating mandate for phase 2 of Brexit. Should it be taking the next trade negotiating mandate off the same peg as CETA and TTIP? Should we be excluding investor courts, given that they are being challenged in the European Court of Justice at present? How can we ensure that environmental, equality and employment regulations are really strongly enforced within the next trade negotiating mandate? We know that a race to the bottom is one which no-one wins. A race to the bottom in a trading agreement with the UK will devastate Ireland and farming. I would love to hear the witnesses' thoughts in detail on what the lesson should be from the public opposition to previous trade deals. Do they think we should delay ratification of CETA until we have a European Court of Justice ruling?