Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government serves the interests of Irish farmers and Irish farm families in these talks and of course this is what we will do. We want to see more food production. We want to see farm income rise. We also want to make sure we have a Common Agriculture Policy that aligns with our climate objectives, which is crucial too.

Currently, the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, is engaged in the negotiations and I would not like to comment on them in too much detail. The Deputy knows there has been convergence in recent years and this is the direction of travel. It does have consequences and there are winners and losers, and the losers are not all sheiks and beef barons. They are also family farms. There are parts of the country that may benefit and there are parts that will lose out. We have to look at all of these in the round.

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