James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

Irish farmers are paid approximately €2.98 per kilo of beef from factories, which is £1.06 in Irish punts. This is put in perspective when one considers that the 1988 rate was £1.05 per kilo. While the single farm payments are distorting the loss-making position, such shortfalls will decimate our farming industry. The destruction of the Common Agricultural Policy would be a major blow for Ireland. The farming sector, already weakened by a series of punitive measures, including the nitrates directive and the importation of Brazilian beef, to name but a couple, could not survive a halving of its already squeezed profit margin. According to IFA president Mr. Padraig Walshe, "Commissioner Mandelson is working behind closed doors in Geneva in a reckless destruction of the CAP". Mr. Walshe has also said Mr. Mandelson is engaged in a race to the bottom, to the lowest standards of food safety, animal welfare and the environment. He is prepared to sell out the Irish beef industry to get a deal at any cost. It is a shame on the Minister that she allows him to do so.

Farmers estimate that without a rise in beef prices in the next few years there will not be many people still working in the sector. With very little return currently, a further reduction would make it impossible for many beef farmers to continue. Dairy, sheep, poultry, pig-meat and cereal farmers are also under threat and are facing tariff cuts of up to 70c, undermining the current strong EU market and milk price.

My area of Longford-Westmeath is a mixed farming region. What happens to one sector happens to all in the fragmentation of farming in the midlands, which is a disadvantaged area of relatively high unemployment that cannot withstand a fall-out in the farming sector. Many of the people who lost their jobs in the industries that went to the wall last week in Longford and Westmeath were also working on small farms.

The Doha round of WTO talks started in 2001 but it hardly touches on the new trade issues which have arisen since then around environmental sustainability, climate change and carbon trading. We live in a changing world. The roller-coaster of political appointments has a potentially damning impact on negotiations. The future of our farming sector should not hinge on the power-hungry rush to conclude negotiations before positions are terminated, and that includes that of the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, whose job is very much threatened by change.

The Government has failed to meet its obligations under the programme for Government on animal welfare and other non-trade issues to be included in WTO negations. The Government that promised to secure the highest achievable level of support for the farming sector in these negotiations has, once again, been found lacking. While this is a crucial moment for theMinister on the home front, it is also a deciding moment for the future of the agriculture sector and that is the most important consideration. The Minister should be on a round-the-world trip, looking for support in other European countries to try to ensure Mr. Mandelson does not get his way. If he does, farming will be finished forever. I plead with the Minister and the Taoiseach to do their utmost on behalf of the farming sector and shame on them if they let it down.

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