Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

If these proposals are approved by the Council, an action plan will be put in place by the middle of 2011. We received support at official and political level from our counterparts in Britain and Hungary for our position, which we argued consistently. If I recall correctly, no other country supported the position. We expressed particular concerns about the proposal to base decisions on hazard-based cut-off criteria, rather than on the scientific principles of risk assessment. Some substances that are crucial to crop protection in Ireland may fail to meet the new cut-off criteria. With regard to some fungicide uses, for example, we argued consistently that consideration should be given to this country's climate conditions. Mediterranean countries like Spain are concerned about insecticide, whereas Ireland's damp climate means that fungicide is the major issue here. As we have consistently pointed out, we do not have the final text of the proposal that will be put to the Council of Ministers next month. We do not know exactly what it will be. For some time, it has been suggested that an action plan will have to be drawn up by the middle of 2011. If the proposals are agreed and need to be implemented at EU level, the Department will meet the relevant stakeholders in the middle of this year to consult them. One of the factors driving these proposals at Commission level is a recent Eurobarometer report, which found that the use of pesticides is the biggest concern of EU citizens when it comes to food safety issues. This issue will not go away.

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