Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Sherlock for his good wishes and look forward to working with him and our colleagues on all sides of the House.

We export 80% of the food we produce in Ireland. I was very glad that this particular issue was down for discussion yesterday at the Council of Ministers. It reinforces once again the particular issues raised by Deputy Sherlock as regards the importance of the Common Agricultural Policy. We all recall that the second article of the Treaty of Rome was to ensure a secure supply of safe food for the citizens of Europe — and the CAP has provided that stability. We are seeking additional milk quota from the health check, and we want simplification. In the recent past, set-aside has literally been set aside. There has been an increase in milk quota this year, and decoupling has been eased as well. These are important concerns. As regards the difficulties that emerged to date in the WTO negotiations, the reality is that this clearly demonstrates the importance of the Common Agricultural Policy. The health check is important now, and subsequently the CAP post-2013 will also be of extreme importance. Of course, the world food shortage has hit the least well off worst in this scenario. Ireland's overseas aid——

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