Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Coonan for his support and I look forward to working with him and his colleagues.

With regard to our allies, the first discussion I had on CAP post-2013 was at the September Council meeting in 2008. There have been numerous discussions on this issue at Council meetings since then at which I have advocated the Irish position strongly and in a positive manner. I have outlined this to the House and to the joint committee. Naturally, I have met colleagues separately outside the formal Council meetings and we have discussed the CAP on numerous occasions. I recall bilateral meetings in Poland and Hungary last July about this issue. We do not share views on all aspects of the policy but we share a strong view on the need to have an adequate budget, to which the Deputy correctly referred. I also visited Finland and the German Minister was in Dublin recently. I have meetings set up with the British Secretary of State for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, Ms Caroline Spelman, and Mr. Bruno Le Maire, the French Minister of Agriculture and Fishing. We have worked with like-minded member states to build up alliances.

The Taoiseach has used the opportunity at every Heads of Government meeting to outline the case for a properly and adequately resourced CAP. On the morning the EU Agriculture Commissioner attended a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, we had a meeting with the Taoiseach where he outlined the view again that there was absolute support on the part of the Government for the adequate resourcing of the CAP post-2013.

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