Joe Walsh (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)

Yes. I thank the Senators who contributed to the debate. By and large, the contributions were positive and objective. Some concerns were raised, including those raised by Senator Ulick Burke, which were not germane to the mid-term review. They included the CPSU strike and Bord Bia, matters I will take up. The Common Agricultural Policy has been reformed on a number of occasions. The first reform was carried out under former Minister Austin Deasy and dealt with the introduction of milk quotas. Then we had the MacSharry reforms which tried to shift support from product to individual producer. We had the Agenda 2000 reforms in 1999 and now we have the mid-term review reforms. What is consistent about all these reforms is the hostile and negative reaction from farm spokespersons.

When former Minister Austin Deasy introduced milk quotas, he was regarded as Cromwellian and so too was former Commissioner MacSharry in his time. We should not try to reverse the improvements in the development of the CAP because it needed to be developed and modernised. It was introduced after the war to secure a food supply for Europe. The original model put in place was overly successful in doing that and as a result we had to got rid of surpluses. I am pleased that individual speakers have made the point over and over that to continue converting raw material produced by farmers into products for which there is no consumer is not a sustainable way for the future.

In the dairy sector we have almost 200,000 tonnes of both butter and skimmed milk already in storage. It is absurd that any leadership could give vent to a policy of saying that we should continue with increasing that commodity type of product storage into the future. It is even worse than that as it misdirects farmer producers from the real market situation. People ask where is the market. It is here at home. Senator Quinn said one could go along rows in his supermarket and see rows and rows of food products not manufactured in Ireland. Any of us could do the same in any supermarket in the country. These foreign products are ordinary everyday items ranging from cheese to products across the board.

There are €3 billion worth of opportunities each year in Ireland because we import more than €3 billion worth of food each year. We are members of the European Community Single Market which has 400 million consumers, a number which will rise to 509 million when the ten new applicant states become members. We are well capable of producing food for the consumers of those countries.