Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

This is our first week back and it is fantastic we are talking about something good, namely, agriculture. I welcome this debate on agriculture in that we all have a big part to play. I refer to the targets for 2020 and the leak which took place during the summer. I was delighted with the leak because it will focus everybody on reality.

The Minister, who has experience in Europe, will ensure the maximum amount of money will come to Ireland for Irish farmers. I know from the meetings I have attended that it will be distributed to the right people who want to produce food, whether in the north, south, east or west of Ireland. That is what everybody wants and that is what we intend to do.

I spent much of the summer visiting meat factories, etc., and the demand for food throughout the world is unreal. Agriculture has always been our number one industry, even in the boom times when perhaps it was kept on the back burner. We must reach the 2020 targets. That will be done with everybody's input, whether the Opposition's, the Government's or the IFA's which has many decisions to make on the payments and the way they are made. It is good to debate this now and then send our Minister who has experience and will come back with the right answer for Irish farmers.

I have been a dairy farmer all my life. As mentioned by everybody, September is always the best month for a farmer to rectify his or her quota. I have seen farmers crucified in the month of April or May with a massive fine. The dairy farmer is different from any other farmer and has a different mentality. He or she is like myself in this job or the teacher in that he or she expects to get paid every month whereas a beef farmer gets paid every three or four months or whatever.

However, if farmers dry up their cows now or a month earlier, they will be one month without a milk cheque. A business decision must be made at this stage to sell in-calf heifers. Most important, cows should be scanned and those not in-calf can either be sent on to the trade or fattened up. In the latter case, farmers will have them when they have no milk cheque. Farmers know that ruthless business decisions must be made. From as early as May, when we knew we were going to hit a massive quota problem, the Minister and MEPs were fighting our corner right across Europe. Europe is 6% under quota and, north of the Border, farmers can produce all the milk they like. Something has to give but there is no guarantee that it will happen this year, so farmers need not stake their lives on it.

I agree with Deputies that in advance of 2015 we must not pull the rug from under young farmers. The most important survey on young farmers I have seen this year was undertaken by Macra na Feirme. They do not want to be paid for doing nothing; they want to get into production, which is what 2020 is about. That is the point I want to get across.

The recently published "Food Harvest 2020: Milestones for Growth" demonstrates the progress that has been made over the last year towards achieving the targets set out in the Food Harvest 2020 report. Reflecting on both that progress and the personal interaction I have had with thousands of farmers and other industry stakeholders throughout the country, I share the confidence and optimism that is evident throughout the sector.

That said, none of us is complacent about that progress made or the future that lies ahead. Just as there are undoubted opportunities, so too are there undoubted challenges. The CAP has been an essential tool in supporting Irish farmers and the Irish agrifood industry. An adequately funded CAP, after 2013, will be equally essential in ensuring the continued growth of the sector and in further ensuring that the industry achieves its full potential.

In our programme for Government, we identified the growth of the agrifood sector as one of our key commitments. To that end, we said that CAP reform will be vital for the future development of the agrifood sector. Our primary aim is to secure a fair overall funding envelope for agriculture under the CAP and a fair share of this budget for Irish agriculture.

In our amendment to the motion, we reiterate that commitment in identifying, as one of the key priorities during the forthcoming negotiations, the need: "to ensure that the vital role of the CAP in promoting sustainable and competitive food production is maintained and that a commensurate EU budget is provided to support that objective." As the House is aware, the proposals for the future of the CAP to 2020 are scheduled to be published in October. The publication of those proposals will be followed by an intense and lengthy period of negotiation that will conclude under the Irish Presidency of the European Council, during which my colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Coveney, will be President of the Council of EU Agriculture Ministers.

Deputies may have no doubt that, during the negotiations, this Government will negotiate vigorously in the best interest of Irish agriculture and the Irish agrifood sector. Apart from ensuring the adequacy of the CAP budget, we will also be negotiating to protect payments to Irish farmers and the agrifood sector under both pillars 1 and 2 of the CAP. We want to ensure that Ireland receives its fair share of the CAP budget. I should emphasise that Ireland's fair share is not some notional amount to which we simply think we are entitled. Rather it is an amount which we believe is entirely justified.

Since this Government has come into office, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, has been a very active member of the Council of EU Agriculture Ministers. Through that period of active engagement he has been building and developing useful alliances with other ministerial colleagues with whom we have various common interests.

The Government will continue that process of active engagement with our EU partners to advance matters of mutual interest. Likewise, we have and are continuing to engage actively and constructively with the European Commission and the European Parliament.

Only this week, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, attended a Council of Agriculture Ministers and had the opportunity, once again, to raise issues of concern with the EU Agriculture Commissioner. We all recognise the increasingly important role of the European Parliament under the co-decision process.

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