Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

While joining with other Members to express concern about the spread of avian flu and bearing in mind the possible restart of the World Trade Organisation negotiations following various private discussions at Davos involving Commissioner Mandelson, it is vital to have an effective and vigilant Minister and Department for Agriculture and Food, as we do. Consequently, I am highly concerned by comments made by a handful of influential people in the media suggesting that agriculture does not really matter any more in an Irish context. For example, last Saturday's issue of The Irish Times suggested there was no longer any justification for agriculture having a separate Department or ministry. I completely reject such thinking and do not believe that any Government, or whatever composition, would fail to appoint a Minister with responsibility for agriculture, as its popularity would plummet forthwith if it did so.

On the subject of agriculture, I draw Members' attention to a subject on which they might hold a debate. I refer to a report all Members will have received from the Trinity Development Initiative at the Institute for International Integration Studies, which has been conducting a two-year study on reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. The key finding is that the benefits from reform would be highly skewed and that most benefits would be captured by a relatively small group of competitive developing country exporters, such as Brazil and Argentina. As the really poor countries have preferential access to EU markets, such reform in developed countries might not bring significant gains to some of the world's poorest countries.

Voices in this House have argued that we need CAP reform for the benefit of the poorest countries. This study shows clearly that such reform would not be for their benefit and I ask Members to take note of this.