Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

As I said earlier in response to Deputy Blaney's question, Ireland was one of the very active members in putting this particular group together, along with France, Germany and Austria. Last December, we got 22 of the 27 member states to sign up to the need for proper CAP resources. Within that group of 22 not everyone shares the same view on the direct payments system, but we are working on this with a number of countries. I mentioned earlier that an official meeting is taking place tomorrow, in which I will be participating. Apart from Council of Ministers meetings, I have had numerous bilateral meetings with other Ministers. Such meetings will continue in June, as well as in July when the Dáil is in recess.

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