Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I thank Senator Quinn for allowing me the opportunity to contribute to the debate and welcome the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Deputy Coughlan. Since being elected to this House 18 years ago, I have spent most of my time defending Ministers for Agriculture and Food, mainly against the Opposition party, but almost as often against the Ministers' own party. I make this point in all seriousness. This country has been very well served by those who have gone to Brussels to negotiate on behalf of Irish farmers, all the way back to such people as Ray MacSharry, who did a superb job. He was buried, knifed and kicked by his own party while he was doing it, as well as by this side of the House. I was perhaps the only one in the House who defended what he was trying to do.

Ivan Yates is remembered better because he made a telephone call from Wexford rather than being at the airport at a given time or vice versa. He did a fantastic job, and Deputy Walsh has also done tremendous work. I compliment the Minister on her work to date, and I assure her of my future support.

I agree with almost all of the points made by Senator Quinn. I take issue with him on only one topic, which leads into what I wish to say. He bemoaned the lack of strategic leadership from the Government for Irish farmers. That is not the case, and Irish farmers have rejected such strategic leadership. I can quote many examples, but I will limit myself to two simple ones from the last 15 years. We sat here for ten years listening to a raging war about beef prices when anyone with two eyes and ears and half a brain knew that we would be dealing with world beef prices before the 1990s were out. While we all knew it we were still trying to convince or mislead farmers into thinking that we could stop it happening.

The story is similar with beet, which has been debated for 32 years. Beet was never a long-term European crop. It was put together mainly to protect farmers in the north of France and Belgium, together with the UK to some extent, and we got in on the back. It was never going to happen.

Those things have an impact, since the strategic issues raised by Senator Quinn, on which I agree with him, need to be considered. Heads must be knocked together. I want people to engage on the issues rather than the personalities. I want them to ask what they will do now that there is no beet industry.

The Minister is going to the WTO talks, and I agree with Senator Quinn's points regarding the benchmarks put in place. How do we deal with it? Globalisation, like Irish unity, means different things to different people. For me, globalisation is the extension of the Treaty of Rome to the globe. It is the free movement of labour and capital, among other things. In her speech the Minister said that she would seek to protect Ireland's position. How can she marry those two things? I believe that it could be done if we examined how globalisation might be extended in a way reflecting the needs of the Irish agriculture community, which needs our support at this stage.

We can do several things, including requiring standards to be met abroad and changing things at home. Let us take the beet issue. Globalisation should be tied very closely to the Kyoto commitments. The Minister and I both know that if matters continue as at present, Brazil will soon supply sugar cane to the entire world. I predict that it will happen within a year or two; there is no doubt that it can do it. Let us remember, however, that Brazil is clearing trees from an area equivalent to the acreage of Ireland every year. It is doing so against all that we believe in regarding Kyoto. To deal with that, we should not do business with the Brazilians or allow into Europe products coming from such a regime.

I could extend that beyond agriculture to such places as China. On "Morning Ireland", it was stated in a throwaway phrase of which many of us have been aware for some time that the Chinese are opening a new coal-burning power station every five days. We are worried about that, and we should say to them that we will not accept that kind of carry-on. Regarding sugar beet, that is what we should also say.

We should make to Brazil the point that Senator Coonan, among others, made very articulately some weeks ago. Why should we allow into our country beef from a country that does not apply the same standards to its producers? We should all say that we are not willing to do that, since Europe cannot allow it. We are strict enough on our own farmers.

The other issue concerns the question of health and safety regulations. Globalisation must be dependent on fair health and safety. Once we are assured of that, we can rule out such things as sweatshops. We will not do business with those countries. This is an ethical and principled stance. In Senator Quinn's words, it is a fair position to take. We help people in both jurisdictions by doing so.

Food safety is another area. I and others in this House have asked about it on numerous occasions but I still do not understand the nonsense whereby a Thai chicken can become a European one because someone cut off its head in Amsterdam. It is total madness. As well as affecting Irish producers and agriculture detrimentally, it also gives European legislation a bad name among ordinary people. If we cannot understand it, how can we expect ordinary people to do so?

Is there a basic position on which we can build our case? We should not oppose globalisation since it is a good idea. The problem is that the Americans have misinterpreted or reinterpreted it in their own way, just as they have done regarding torture and many other things. We should say that it is not what we expect or understand it to mean. There are also things that must be done here.

I have a single priority for Irish beef farmers with which the Minister could deal in the Houses in two weeks. Will she revise and reform the Abattoirs Act 1988? It was the biggest mistake ever made in Irish agriculture in the last 20 years. We no longer know where our beef comes from. Twenty years ago we knew when we walked into a local butcher's shop in any part of Ireland that it was more than likely that the butcher had bought it locally. Senator Quinn may have a different view on this, but he will not disagree with what I say now. The Abattoirs Act 1988 has put great costs on outlets such as those of Senator Quinn, since they must try to prove where meat comes from. We did not have that problem until the Act was passed.

The Minister can do two things, the first being to examine the success of farmers' markets and how we can sell locally. They have seen great growth around Europe. Regulations concerning them are interpreted differently in different parts of Europe. Second, she should take a holiday to Provence and visit the local vegetable market. This is a serious point. She should take half her officials with her and a digital camera. She should photograph what is on sale there — the beautiful, shiny, healthy, perfect vegetables. Then she should go to her local supermarket such as one of my colleague's shops, photographing the extraordinarily good vegetables that he will have on display there.