Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

While welcoming the appointment of an Irish Commissioner to this EU agriculture post, I have to say I continue to have grave concerns about many of the actions of Commissioner Hogan when he was a Government Minister here. I am also highly critical of the method of selection of Commissioners. Right across the EU, citizens want a social Union, but the Commission and the way the Commissioners are selected does not reflect that.

The Taoiseach may want to comment on some of the decisions taken here when Commissioner Hogan was in office, particularly the delivery of Leader programme and the role he played in dismantling the local development sector. The European Commission sent the Government a list of 266 questions - or over 400, depending on what piece of documentation one reads - in regard to the Government's proposed changes to the delivery of the Leader programme. In my opinion, these are attempts to redefine this programme, which was essentially a genuine grassroots, community-based measure, as a programme that is completely subject to whatever local authority or Government happens to be in power. Given the threat to the local development sector and the concerns raised by many about the impact on local rural communities, and given the European Commission's questions to the Government on its programme for rural development for 2014 to 2020, will the Government review its proposed new measures?

I want to make a brief comment on the appointment of Ms Mogherini as the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. We might get a chance later to return to this issue, but I want to ask the Taoiseach one simple question. At the beginning of November, Ms Mogherini said: "I would be happy if by the end of my term, a Palestinian state existed". On a visit to Gaza last week, she said: “We need a Palestinian state - that is the ultimate goal and this is the position of all the European Union”. Does the Taoiseach agree with this objective? Will the Government make it very clear if it does agree, given that in the past it has said it has to keep pace with Europe, almost as if we did not have an independent foreign policy mandate? Now that the European Union has put its flag firmly to that mast, will the Taoiseach declare that the Government is also for a Palestinian state?

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