Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I concur with the Deputy. If we can access funding to cover the capital costs of building an infrastructure that can facilitate a sugar industry, we should consider the proposal. My responsibility is to ensure that post-2015 Ireland will have the capacity, from a quota point of view, to produce sugar again if it is commercially viable to do so. This will be challenging. While the Commission is proposing the abolition of quotas for sugar in 2015 in line with the abolition of milk quotas, the proposal is not supported by the majority of member states, most of which are seeking an extension of sugar quotas until 2020. While I am a strong supporter of the Commission's proposal, I am also a realist who accepts that a compromise date of 2017 or 2018 may be agreed for the abolition of quotas. Ireland has been compensated for staying out of the sugar production business until 2015. If the sugar quota mechanism is extended beyond 2015, the quota will have to be increased to address the shortage of sugar in the European Union. I will, therefore, make a strong case for allowing Ireland to access quota from a production point of view post-2015. It will be a political challenge to do that, but we will endeavour to do it until quotas go altogether, which will allow us do as we please.

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