Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The headline news from this summit is that for the first time in 56 years the EU has agreed to a budget decrease. It appears that Mr. Cameron got an agreement that will be good for him for the next election, but who knows? A €34 billion cut has been agreed. Sinn Féin supports cuts to wasteful spending. However, one big potential saving that has not been touched is the waste involved in having two locations for the European Parliament at Brussels and Strasbourg. A big saving could be made by scrapping the move to Strasbourg once a month.

The stark reality is that the budget agreement will do little to boost investment in jobs and growth and will leave member states starved of strategic investment in key areas. There has been a great deal of rhetoric about jobs and growth being a priority for the EU, yet the details of the proposals are very limited. This is a missed opportunity to refocus on the need not to cut the budget but to grow the economy, retain jobs and to create new jobs. The measures in the budget do not go far enough to provide the type of stimulus and investment package needed to tackle the unemployment crisis. There are 26 million people unemployed; it is a huge number of citizens. Cuts to Cohesion and Structural Funds, the tools that implement the EU's regional policy, will hit Europe’s poorest regions most.

I am also concerned about the impact cuts in the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, will have on this island. There is a cut in the funding for rural development and the single farm payment. The forthcoming reform of the CAP is perhaps the single major issue facing Irish farming at present. Agriculture remains the most important indigenous sector of the Irish economy and is one that Sinn Féin believes, and the Government is with us on this, can become a key engine of recovery. The Government will have to step up to the plate to provide matched funding for rural development and support vital farming schemes. There is now an opportunity to decide on a system of direct farm payments that will limit the payments to some of the big farms in favour of smaller farms.

There is a very strong case for moving to a more equitable distribution of payments and for capping the amount that any single claimant may receive.

Another victim of the cuts will be the PEACE Programme. While it is very welcome that the PEACE Programme will continue, the amount will be reduced not quite by half but from €225 million to €150 million which will undermine a great deal of the good work which has been done with peace funding.

I note that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Simon Coveney, is convening a meeting of agriculture Ministers tonight in Brussels. The horsemeat controversy appears to have widened following raids yesterday on a Welsh meat plant and a Yorkshire slaughterhouse on foot of claims that horses killed in Britain were used to make low-cost meat dishes. Given how widespread the incidence of horsemeat use appears to be, it is clearly now a European-wide issue. The Food Safety Authority in the South and the Food Standards Agency in the North have been proactive in identifying the fact that there was a problem and isolating the contamination. It is of critical importance that the issue is dealt with quickly and decisively but I note that it was not raised in the public agenda at the summit meeting. There are thousands of processing jobs and farm livelihoods which are dependent on the beef and food sector generally. There is understandable concern among workers and farmers. There is also particularly widespread concern among consumers. This is a scam of huge proportions. People expect to get what it says on the tin but there is ongoing and widespread fraud. Perhaps the Taoiseach can provide an update on the situation. There is a need for proper traceability and labelling to prevent manufacturers cutting corners by importing inferior or indeed totally different product than advertised. Falsely labelling all of this product as 100% Irish undermines the reputation of Irish food produce internationally.

The Taoiseach has a unique opportunity during the EU Presidency to advance the case for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. Given the success of our peace process, I commend to him active promotion of a peace settlement in that region.

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