Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The original proposal, when the multi-annual financial framework was being negotiated at European level a couple of years ago, was for a cut in CAP. As Taoiseach at the time, Deputy Micheál Martin, pushed back massively, because of the importance of agriculture in our country. It is not the same in other countries in Europe, but it is for us. We were one of the countries to the forefront in pushing that back to seek to get the CAP budget maintained. That was a massive fight and a massive battle and it went to the very wire to maintain it. That is the battle we have when there are 27 member states, when there is competition for those funds. Were we to reopen it, the battle would recommence. I can assure Deputy Browne we would be in a minority in relation to those looking to increase the CAP budget because everybody would be looking to get a bite out of it. We will not have that. However, where we have capacity and where we stand on our own is when we come back here, having negotiated as strongly as we can at European level with the other 27 member states, then we can decide our own national budget and what we bring to the table in relation to national taxpayer funding. We delivered the highest ever increase in the national contribution to CAP, between CAP programmes this time around, with a 50% increase in CAP from the last one. For example, ACRES is up by 50%; I just mentioned the suckler cow scheme; and organics are up by four or five times. That is what this Government has delivered.

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