Noel Treacy (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

Ireland welcomes the decision of Ministers to reach political agreement on the draft directive at the Competitiveness Council meeting on Monday, 29 May. The Council will formally adopt its common position at one of its forthcoming meetings and will forward the dossier to the European Parliament for a Second Reading. As regards the questions raised by Deputy Sargent, each member state is expected to submit a progress report by 15 October 2006. The EU Commission has issued guidance on the format of the progress reports and will hold bilateral discussions with officials in each member state over the coming weeks and months.

Overall, it is envisaged that the preparation of the progress report will mirror that of the national reform programme itself with the Department of the Taoiseach leading the co-ordination. The Department of Finance and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment will have primary responsibility for the various policy areas, while other Departments will feed in material as appropriate. Initiatives emerging from current negotiations with the social partners will be reflected in the progress report.

A number of issues referred to by the Deputy were raised in this House earlier this year during the debate on the reform programme and in the Seanad debate also. They were incorporated into our final document which we submitted to Brussels as part of our national reform programme.

The Deputy raised the issue of food transport but I do not have information on it. I will pursue the matter and revert to the Deputy later. The issues raised here will certainly be taken up in the progress report. It will be my responsibility to take into account what the Oireachtas says on such issues, which I will include in the document to be considered for the progress report in October.

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