Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

Some member states raised the possibility of revisiting the Health Check of the Common Agricultural Policy. I vehemently oppose such proposals. Last week I travelled to Germany to meet the German Minister. Germany has strongly advocated additional support for the dairy sector. However, it also favours revisiting the Health Check. As I said, we strongly oppose that proposal.

During the course of the Health Check negotiations, we sought and initiated a debate within the Health Check mechanism to ensure that we retained the market management measures that are currently in place. If those measures were not in place, the dairy sector would be in serious trouble. We are all aware of the serious difficulties that exist both at farm gate level and at processor level. Several member states have indicated that they would like to see the additional quota put on hold. One member state advocated that the butterfat adjustment should not be implemented. I disagree entirely with these proposals.

The Health Check has not led to the deterioration in the dairy market. The reality is that we are under quota. There was a welcome increase in prices in 2007 and the early part of 2008 at which time there was a reduced supply from New Zealand as a result of drought. Since then, however, there has been increased supply from New Zealand and the United States. In the case of the latter, the weakness of the dollar made for a favourable currency arrangement. The currency situation has since changed somewhat. To reiterate, we do not support a revisiting of the Health Check under any circumstances. We may stand to lose out in a major way from any such review.

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