Noel Coonan (Fine Gael)

I refer to the impact of the Minister's negotiating skills on Irish agriculture. She can see that it is disintegrating all around her. In a few years there will be no farmers. A recent report stated that in 15 years time when the regulations and WTO agreements take effect, only 10,000, or fewer, of the 40,000 present full-time farmers will be in business. Who can blame young farmers running a mile from farms, given the attitude of the Government and the European Union towards farming? This is an agricultural country. Like it or not, we depend on agriculture. The economy depends significantly on agricultural exports.

There was a saying in my part of the country that when the farm was going well, the country was going well. Towns such as Roscrea and Thurles now know that to their cost because the closure of factories in both towns, as a result of the decline in agriculture, make it clear to everybody there.

European, and particularly Irish, agriculture is being sacrificed to win benefits for other sectors. It is interesting that the negotiations are spearheaded by the EU Trade Commissioner, Mr. Mandelson, from Britain. Everyone, particularly in Ireland, knows to their cost, that British policy was always to get cheap food. That will continue to be the British policy and Mr. Mandelson will achieve it in these talks.

It is somewhat ironic that, although his negotiating skills are so questionable, as the Minister admitted in her speech, the first to applaud and congratulate Mr. Mandelson was our Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dermot Ahern.