Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

I will take responsibility for my decisions. I make the decisions. There are a number of factors which nobody wants to appreciate. First, a WTO panel decision was taken against us. Second, we never reformed the sector. Third, we have major difficulties with regard to imports of cheap sugar, and the European Community had a much higher supported sugar price than the world sugar price.

All in this House know I fully supported the notion that we did not have to introduce reform prior to the WTO decisions, and that we had worked together and formed a blocking minority at the time on the basis that the proposals being put forward were unacceptable. I was advised by the farming sector that it would not grow sugar beet in any circumstances at a certain price. As a consequence I had to try to get a fair price in order to encourage people to grow sugar beet. That was not possible on the basis of a decision made at 2 a.m. on the day of the final discussions when a number of my colleagues who were part of the blocking minority removed themselves from that minority, and I did not have the political wherewithal to stop this.

I could either sit on my hands and go home or do something about it, which I did. We increased the diversification fund to €44 million and we will need to look at further opportunities in the tillage sector in order to address the rotational aspect of sugar beet. There is also an overall package of €310 million, with single farm payments giving the differential between the loss and what the cost of the sugar beet would be. The third item is a restructuring fund which is being paid for by the sugar companies now remaining in sugar.

I will make those decisions to the best of my ability in the context of the legal text available to me, in consultation with all the stakeholders, with independent advice being made available to me.