Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

It is vital that certain issues in the dairy sector are dealt with. The issue of cost and how it is to be removed from the sector is one on which I have worked continuously and will continue to work. We will achieve delivery on that. Other issues arise such as that of the world trade talks and their impact on the dairy sector, which is serious. I will work to the best of my ability to ensure we get the best outcome, that we achieve safeguard clauses and that we have as much protection for the sector as possible.

I do not accept the view that my predecessor or the Taoiseach in any way undermined the dairy sector in the 2003 Luxembourg agreement. I will explain why this is so. The then Minister for Agriculture and Food, Deputy Walsh, led the discussions on this issue in the 2003 agreement on the basis of the best way forward for farming, namely a decoupled reorientation of a policy framework that would allow us to develop. If not for the Taoiseach's negotiating skills, we would not have had the necessary support mechanisms and guarantees until 2013. He succeeded in that task despite the objections of many of his colleagues, for whom agriculture was less important than it is for this economy.

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