Mr. Phil Hogan:

I thank the Chairman and the committee for the invitation to be here today. It is an honour to be here today to engage with the committee on matters affecting Irish and European agriculture. The Chairman has touched on a few of them himself in his opening remarks.

Since taking up office in November 2014, I have prioritised my engagement with national parliaments and, in particular, parliamentary committees on agriculture. To date I have met agri-committees in ten member states. As a former elected representative, I am keenly aware of the importance of reaching out to parliaments and listening to perspectives and feedback on the state of play on the ground in agriculture. Whereas European agriculture is as diverse as the European climate, from the olive groves of southern Europe to the reindeer farms in the far north, the issues raised by public representatives are often quite similar. Issues such as how to simplify the Common Agriculture Policy, how to ensure a good living for producers in order that they can continue to produce their product and how to gain new opportunities for our high quality produce in global markets are the ones I am prioritising; therefore, it is essential to receive feedback from those closest to the citizen, namely, elected public representatives.

I am here to update the committee on a number of issues of interest to members and their constituents and will be glad to answer some of their questions immediately afterwards. I will start by giving an overview of the beef data and genomics scheme. The scheme is an agri-environment climate measure under Ireland's rural development programme. A key requirement of any agri-environment climate measure is that farmers must undertake commitments for a period of five to seven years. These are the regulations and legislation that govern that scheme. The terms and conditions of the beef data and genomics scheme could be revised but only by way of modification of the rural development programme.