Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

I intend to strengthen the processing and retail representation in this sector.

Apart from providing inputs for the agrifood industry, agriculture and forestry have a significant role to play in producing a variety of what are called "public goods". Exchequer and EU support for the agricultural sector is increasingly focused on paying for the production of public goods, which would otherwise be underprovided. Public acceptance of this role for the CAP requires continually assuring the consumer and the taxpayer of the real benefits it delivers. The Department of Agriculture and Food will publish, in conjunction with the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, a national rural development strategy in mid-2006, following extensive consultation with stakeholders. This will set the principles for rural development support until 2013, including REPS, forestry, disadvantaged areas, early retirement, installation aid and on-farm investment measures. It is vital to ensure value for public money in all the measures included in the programme, and that public good benefits are clear and measurable.

It has taken a long time to bring this vision document together because it was done by consultation and took a measured approach with targets set appropriate to the sector's ability to develop. We must create a vision and give an optimism to the sector on the basis of change; instead of lying under the challenges of change we must take the opportunities presented and develop within the policy framework set out.

There are internal and external issues causing difficulties at farm level. With regard to the nitrates directive, if we had progressed further on the decisions of 1996 and had accepted proposals put forward by several previous Ministers for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, we might not be in the current impasse. We are dealing with a water quality directive and must address it. Deciding how we do so and how we reduce the expense to the farmer is my job. I have done that in a new farm waste management scheme accepted across all sides of the House, which is vital. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and I are, under my instructions to Teagasc, bringing forward new science which Teagasc has advised us is available in order to reduce the current impact of the nitrates directive on farmers.