Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

——to the tune of €3 billion over the period to 2013 and for the first time the National Exchequer funding, at €1.6 billion, is more than the EU contribution. That demonstrates our commitment to agriculture. Also, for the first time, I made REPS available to the more intensive farmers, particularly those in the dairy sector. I know that many of these farmers will welcome the chance to farm in a more environmentally friendly way while remaining commercially successful.

Another issue that arose out of environmental considerations was the need to help farmers who need to make investments to comply with the nitrates directive. I introduced the revised farm waste management scheme in March 2006 for this purpose. A total of 48,580 applications were received from farmers under this scheme by the closing date and more than 33,000 approvals have issued to farmers to commence work.

I wish to deal with the issue which is at the core of this debate, namely, the protection of consumer and animal health. It is important that the debate on this issue in conducted in an objective and factual basis. An emotive approach using scare tactics misrepresents the position.

When we talk of consumer health, we refer to food safety. There is clear evidence that our food safety controls are working. These controls include the production of animal feed, processing of raw material, control on imports and controls at transport and retail stages.

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