Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)

The nitrates directive is not the only recent mess for which the Government is responsible in terms of food. I want to speak about food labelling, in particular. We hear almost daily reports of outbreaks of foot and mouth in the cattle herds of countries such as Brazil. Meanwhile, Irish farmers are protesting at the continued importation of potentially diseased Brazilian beef into this country. The Minister made clear to me her view in reply to a parliamentary question in December when I asked if she was satisfied that beef from a country with endemic foot and mouth is still being imported into Europe and taking away potentially the livelihoods of Irish farmers. Her reply was as follows:

With respect to traceability and controls of residues of veterinary medicines, the purpose of EU legislation is not to impose on exporting third countries a system of guarantees that is equal to the EU system but that the exporting country provides guarantees that are equivalent to the standards applied in the EU.

All third countries, like Brazil, must do is provide us with guarantees that are equivalent to the standards applied in the EU. This means that a guarantee from the Brazilian Government is not equivalent to applying the same standards as Irish farmers must struggle to uphold. A guarantee is a piece of paper. The standards Irish farmers must follow are much more than a piece of paper; they are a way of life. Despite this, we allow the importation of beef from countries with foot and mouth disease on the strength of a piece of paper. A guarantee is just that. It is a piece of paper, not an inspection system, a traceability system or a blood test. We need much more evidence, stringency and labelling.

The Minister will say that she does not make the rules and that we operate within the constraints of EU law. I will leave aside the point that she represents us in Europe and that we would hope she would make a very strong case on our behalf at the Council of Ministers. While I accept she may not be able to stop Brazilian beef coming into country, she can ensure that we know where it is coming from. The Minister may be happy with a guarantee from the Brazilian Government that its standards are equal to ours, but I do not think the rest of us as consumers are happy about that.

What is needed is legislation, with the country of origin clearly defined. There must be a level playing pitch in regard to products that are imported and our own home produced products. The country of origin must be defined for all imported meat. A voluntary code of practice is all very well, but there is no way of enforcing it. One should welcome it in so far as it is a step in the right direction, and there is clearly the implication that we are all in favour of having the country of origin and clear labelling on our products, but it cannot be policed or enforced. Therefore, it is crucial to have in place proper legislation.

The future of farming will not be secure, even if the Minister persuades the Minister, Deputy Roche, to withdraw the nitrates directive in its current form. The future of farming and rural Ireland will only be secure if the Government co-ordinates its approach to rural Ireland, the production of food and the challenges that face agriculture. A number of challenges face agriculture that have not been addressed.

Countries which achieve the optimum balance on the one hand between profitability in agriculture and food processing and, on the other, society and the consumer's increasing quality requirements will succeed best in the agriculture and food industries in the immediate years ahead. We need that balance. A Minister with responsibility for agriculture, food and rural development might be able to secure this future for Irish farming if we have the courage to meet the challenges with which Irish farming is faced. There are challenges over which no one can have control, but we can address them and try to respond to them. We have relatively little control over climate change. We need consolidation of agri-industrial enterprises, EU subsidies are ending and we have a globalised economy whether we like it or not. These facts may not be very pleasant or helpful, but we must face up to them. We must put in place the systems that will allow agriculture to remain vibrant.

We must examine the new terminology being used in agriculture, namely, multifunctionality. Multifunctionality embraces food production, quality, safety, the environment, animal welfare and the production of biofuels. It means embracing the knowledge economy in Irish agriculture, but it is difficult to see how we will do that when we cannot roll out broadband in the city of Dublin never mind in more remote parts of the country, yet we talk about the importance of the whole education and information society.

We need much more research. I acknowledge the moneys and supports that have been given to food research in this country, which is very important, but we have much more to do in that area. We need to establish national capabilities in agrifood biotechnology, for example, and to promote those. We need to quantify the costs and benefits of EU and national environmental policies. We require Government policies that embrace the production of biofuels, not just policies which merely tolerate it. There is scope for that now and there is also an obligation on this country to meet the requirements in regard to biofuels. There is an opportunity to develop it and we should move that forward, not just aiming to reach minimum standards, which we are not yet doing.

We must combat the rural brain drain. What are we doing to stop young people moving out of rural Ireland? If we do not have such supports as broadband, we are expecting educated, well-informed young people to put up with prehistoric facilities. We need education and training programmes to raise the human resource capabilities of rural business and of rural populations generally. We must be more specific in terms of helping young farmers remain on the land.

Rural Ireland will face many challenges in the coming years. Judging the Government on its performance on country of origin labelling and the nitrates directive, it does not have the energy to face them. That is why I urge this House to support the motion.

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