Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I share Deputy Creed's views on the issues on which he has touched. At a Council of Ministers meeting in September 2008 under the French Presidency we had our first discussion on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy. At that meeting I, along with some other members, outlined that we had to have an adequately resourced CAP and that my preference would be that we should know the parcel of money that we will have for CAP in the financial perspectives going forward to 2020. In the meantime the issue has also been discussed under the Czech Presidency, and under the Swedish Presidency as well. There were no Council conclusions on those issues, but there were extremely worthwhile discussions.

We have reached a point where in December last, at a meeting in Paris, 22 of the 27 member states signed up to a declaration on the need to have, first and foremost, an adequately and well-resourced CAP. We were active in that group. That group grew from work that we did along with the French Minister, the German Ministers and some others, and thankfully, it reached the stage where 22 member states attended the meeting and signed up to this declaration.

I want to see the CAP resourced adequately so that we have food security in Europe, we protect the food production base in Europe, we protect, encourage and assist family farming, and we are also active in supporting rural development. Deputy Creed's comment on supporting active farmers is one that I share absolutely.

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