James Bannon (Fine Gael)

What has the Government done to merit this self-praise? It relaunched a report which had been gathering dust on the shelf for the last 15 months. The Taoiseach recently announced, with some fanfare, a blueprint for agriculture beyond 2015, an effort on which the Government is now lavishing inordinate praise. Something needed to be pulled from the hat to cover the large, white elephant the Taoiseach mistook for a rabbit when he proudly produced the Agri-Vision 2015 blueprint, which had already been conjured by the Minister 15 months earlier.

In a comedy of errors, the Minister published the initial report on 15 December 2004 and stated that she would produce her response to that report in the new year. On 27 January 2005, in a reply to a parliamentary question, the Minister stated that an implementation plan based on the Agri-Vision report would be forthcoming shortly. On 15 November 2005, in a further reply to a parliamentary question, it was stated that the action plan for agriculture, based on the Agri-Vision 2015 report, would be launched early in 2006. The Taoiseach, oblivious to all this and waking up to the crisis in agriculture, produced a report out of the hat which was another rehash. In a great spirit of enthusiasm and realising that agriculture was on its knees, the Taoiseach launched a 15 month-old report that was produced by a committee chaired by our former leader, Mr. Alan Dukes. I am glad the Minister acknowledged that.