Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I launched a consultation process with stakeholders in July 2009 to obtain their views on the EU agriculture policies which will serve Ireland and the EU best in the years to come. I am pleased with the responses I received, which will help to inform our position during the important negotiations that lie ahead. In this House last month, I announced my intention to establish a consultative committee on the Common Agricultural Policy after 2013. The first meeting of this committee is scheduled to take place on 12 May. The committee comprises all the major farming and agriculture representative organisations that are involved in social partnership, as well as a number of academics. The EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Dacian Ciolos, recently launched a public consultation process to give all stakeholders and interested parties an opportunity to express their views on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy. In parallel with this process, the Commission has called for specific submissions on rural development in the context of CAP after 2013. My Department has written to interested stakeholders to advise them how to participate in both consultation processes and to encourage them to do so, to ensure Ireland's voice is heard at every stage. Commissioner Ciolos will host a conference in July to discuss the findings from these consultations.

Broad discussions on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy have been under way since the second half of 2008, when the French Presidency held a first policy debate at an informal meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council. Since then, every Presidency has contributed to the debate. The Czech Presidency focused on the issue of direct payments to farmers and the Swedish Presidency focused on rural development issues. At the meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council in March, the Spanish Presidency got agreement on its conclusions on the role of market management measures after 2013. The Belgian and Hungarian Presidencies, which make up the trio Presidency up to 30 June 2011, fully endorsed these conclusions. In addition to the discussions at Council level, my officials and I continue to engage with other member states and the Commission bilaterally on the future of the CAP. In this regard, I recently met the new Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development to outline my objectives, including the need for a robust and properly funded CAP. Commissioner Ciolos has accepted my invitation to visit Ireland in July. This will be a timely visit as it will be just in advance of the publication of the Commission's formal communication on the future of the CAP. I will take this opportunity to remind the Commissioner that my overarching view, which I have repeatedly expressed at meetings of the Council and bilaterally to my ministerial colleagues, is that we need a strong and adequately resourced Common Agricultural Policy after 2013.

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