Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I am well aware of the degree of opposition by some members of the public to the cultivation and use of GM crops here and of concerns about those crops from both a health and an environmental perspective. It has been for these very reasons that the European Union has adopted a series of legislative measures in recent years that ensure the most stringent conditions are in place in the regulation and control of GM crops and their products within the European Community.

The Deputy will be aware that in the adoption of this GMO legislation protracted debates and readings took place before the texts were finally agreed by the European Parliament and Council of Ministers under the co-decision procedure. This legislation is binding on all member states and must be compatible with our international commitments. In this regard, we are awaiting the final report of the WTO disputes panel on the claims by the US, Argentina and Canada that the de facto moratorium on the approval of new GM products within the EU constituted an economic barrier to trade.

To take stock of the current situation on the cultivation of GM crops, the Austrian Presidency organised an informative conference in Vienna last month, which I attended along with officials from the Department of Agriculture and Food, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. In addressing the conference, Commissioner Fischer Boel strongly restated EU policy as meaning that European farmers should be able to choose between conventional, organic and GM production. EU legislation facilitates this freedom of choice. However, enshrined in this freedom is the understanding that farmers who would like to continue with their current farming practices should be able to do so.

In recognising the diversity of farm patterns across Europe, the European Commission has placed the responsibility on each member state to draw up its own national strategy to ensure effective co-existence. Ireland, like the majority of member states, is in the process of deciding on what strategies should be employed if the farming community decides to commence the cultivation of GM crops in this country.

For the sake of clarity, I remind the House that the control and legislation of GMOs and GM products in Ireland cuts across three different Departments. The Minister for Health and Children, in conjunction with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, deals with issues relating to GM foods. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is responsible, in conjunction with the EPA, for matters relating to the authorisation of new GM crops for their deliberate release into the environment. The EPA also deals with applications to carry out trials for GM crops in this country similar to the recent GM potato application made by BASF for a trial in County Meath, to which the EPA has given its approval.

The responsibility of the Department of Agriculture and Food relates to the growing of authorised GM crops alongside non-GM crops in a way that is harmonious to all crop production types and is in compliance with the legal obligations for labelling and purity criteria. This is generally referred to as GM co-existence. In 2003, we established an interdepartmental-interagency working group to identify the issues and implications for Ireland of the cultivation of GM crops and to develop proposals for a national strategy and best practices. The working group completed its work in December last and a public consultation process has just been completed. I am in the process of considering the observations received in conjunction with the recommendations made in the report and I hope to be in a position to bring forward some strategies and procedures to facilitate co-existence of GM and non-GM crops by the end of the year.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

In addition, my Department has taken over responsibility for future applications for approval of GM feeds and will deal with the issue of threshold for GM seeds when agreed by the Council of Environment Ministers.

I am aware of the vote taken by Meath County Council to have that county declared as a GM-free zone but, as I have indicated to the House on previous occasions, EU legislation on the cultivation of GM crops, which was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council and which is binding on all member states, does not provide for the unilateral declaration of a GM-free country. There are, however, options available to restrict the growing of GM crops within regions of a country such as voluntary measures or in cases where, on the basis of sound scientific evidence, individual GM crops cannot be cultivated in certain areas of the country.

On the final issue raised by the Deputy regarding my intervention within the EU to seek the right of self-determination for a region or a country to be declared GM free, I am of the view that a considerable amount of work has been invested by both the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers over the past decade to have in place a suite of GM legislation which provides for one of the most effective and stringent GM authorisation procedures in the world. While it is prudent to review the operation of this legislation regularly, I do not believe that there are logical grounds at this time to initiate any radical changes to the regime.

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