John Gerard Hanafin (Fianna Fail)

The Common Agricultural Policy is changing significantly as it is bound to in the context of world trade agreements and the stretching of the EU to the Russian border. While some very positive developments have resulted, there are a number of issues to address. If we support Third World countries, we must ensure the people in those countries benefit rather than the companies which own the land, sugar and means of production. Similarly, any compensation must be provided to farmer producers on a pro rata basis because it is European taxpayers' money. It should not be the case that hundreds of thousands if not millions of euro is paid in compensation to some individuals while others who depend on production for their livelihood receive paltry sums. I would like to see equity in compensation.

Yesterday, there was a power cut in part of the complex, which raised a couple of issues. While one could hear division bells, unless one could distinguish the sound of each bell, one did not know for which House they were ringing. None of us took the risk and we all turned up here to vote. It would be very simple to send a group text message to Members' phones to notify them of a division.