Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Labour)

I join Deputy Tom Barry in thanking the Minister for his inclusive approach to this matter and his positive and strong statements to the House regarding our strategic approach in the coming weeks and months, and in the medium to long term, in respect of the Common Agricultural Policy. I also welcome the Minister's comments to me at Tuesday's meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Natural Resources and Agriculture regarding his strong identification and attachment to small rural farmers and the disadvantaged payment issue. The Minister has indicated his commitment to examine how we can secure maximum effect and benefit for rural economies. Given the scarcity of available resources, we must ensure a fair and equitable distribution of the resources we have to rural areas.

I also welcome the Minister's stated priorities with regard to Ireland's strategy for approaching CAP reform. He will have the full support of the Labour Party in seeking to maximise resources for the CAP as far as possible, so that this country has a sustainable food production strategy in the interest of the broader economy. We will support him as he seeks to secure flexibility from other member states in regard to the type of payment model he outlined at Tuesday's meeting. We are all agreed on the need to ensure that single farm payment funds are protected and that any future adjustments are fair and equitable.

I noted the Minister's clarification earlier this week on an issue I raised with him, namely, the necessity to ensure that whatever emerges from the reforms, we must have a simple and effective way of minimising unnecessary bureaucracy. Farmers are currently faced with a minefield of compliance paperwork. I support the Minister's position in regard to the incident in Wexford this week where direct action took place against the Minister and his officials. We were led to believe this was the consequence of a failure to communicate certain issues. It has been brought to my attention that compliance in regard to paperwork is a major issue for the Department. This is an area urgently in need of reform in order to ensure the Department reaches its targets under the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform's interdepartmental spending review. One can only assume the Department is allocating significant resources for the purpose of correcting documentation, reviewing digitised maps and so on. We must tackle this inefficiency within the Department in order to ensure prompt, efficient and secure payment for rural communities.

I had a great deal more to see but the Acting Chairman has indicated my time is up.

See this speech in context