Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran, and acknowledge the interesting points made earlier by the Minister, Deputy Smith, in his speech. I welcome also the opportunity to say a few words on CAP. This is an important debate, for which I thank the Government side. As stated by previous speakers, agriculture is the largest indigenous industry in Ireland. Why then should we not give it prominence? It is only right and fitting that we have a proper debate on CAP reforms.

I congratulate Deputy Michael Creed and my party leader, Deputy Enda Kenny, on engaging on this issue throughout the country. They have held several public debates on CAP reform. I attended a public meeting in Claremorris which was attended by approximately 600 people from the ICMSA, IFA, ICA, other organisations, press and so on. It was an important and interesting debate at which the IFA, ICMSA and ICA representatives and journalists made some important points. It is important all of these debates are filtered into the proposals to be put forward by Government in the context of CAP reform in 2013.

There is no doubt that we have witnessed huge changes in agriculture during the past 50 years. I recall there were once at least 400 full-time farmers in my parish of Mayo Abbey. I do not believe there is one full-time farmer in that parish today, as is the case in many other parishes throughout the country. There have been significant changes through automation and new machinery and methods. There have also been significant changes in world prices as well as a major shift in emphasis. At one time, every farmer had a few cows and sent some milk to the creamery. The creamery cans, which every household had, were collected. People had their own vegetables, potatoes, eggs and, in some cases, bacon. They were almost self-sufficient and in many cases all that was purchased was a bag of flour, sugar and tea. Farmers gave freely of excess vegetables and potatoes to their cousins and people living in towns. That is an era many Members of the House can recall. Now we have farm payments but no potatoes, vegetables or creamery cans. However, we have much farm machinery. We also do not have full-time farmers. There has been a major shift which will transcend into the new eastern European member states of the European Union. They will look for their pound of flesh when the time comes during the negotiations on the 2013 CAP reform.

An organisation which played a major role during the past 50 years is the co-operative movement. This is an area the Government should examine. The co-operative movement raised this country from its knees. We had big and small co-operatives for various items, including milk and vegetables, and even the credit unions came from the co-operative movement. It had a significant input into Irish society and the building of the new Ireland. The Government should consider supporting the co-operative movement and taking on board some of its ideas. It still has a major role to play. Some co-operatives became public limited companies or were privatised, but there is now a shift back, and Glanbia is returning to being a co-operative and giving its milk processing back to shareholders and the co-operative movement. The Irish Co-operative Organisation Society, ICOS, has also played a significant role. It has made a submission to the Government which should be examined very closely. It has tabled very good proposals.

As Senator Bradford stated, we should consider the three areas of sufficient food supplies, high quality food and doing everything possible to keep family farms intact. We all have our own ideas of what a family farm is about and it is important to this country, whether it is full-time or part-time. In most cases, a family farm is not let out of the family and people do not want to let go of it. We must bear this in mind.

This country has come a long way in the production of high quality food and it costs an enormous amount of money to produce high quality food to the level it is produced to in this country. This is why it is our largest indigenous industry. We have stuck at it, put quality standards in place and persevered. Europe has helped us with this. One who travels to Europe occasionally looks for Irish products and if they are available, one will buy them. Bord Bia has an important role to play in the promotion of Irish food abroad. We are an exporting nation. We produce more than we can use so we must export it. We must have a good product and, as Senator O'Toole stated, we are up against world trade prices and countries such as Brazil and Venezuela which produce massive quantities of very good quality beef. That will enter this market, as did New Zealand lamb. We must be able to compete with these and this is why supports are very important. The Government must seriously examine keeping supports in place.

The submission made by ICOS is very important in terms of keeping supports in place in the lead-up to the CAP reforms, especially with regard to milk production because as we have seen the number of milk suppliers are dwindling. As I stated earlier, there used to be a creamery can outside almost every house in the parish of Mayo Abbey. I do not think there is a full-time milk supplier in that region at present. There may be a handful of suppliers but I doubt they are full time.

The Minister, Deputy Smith, acknowledged that the support system worked in 2007 when the price of milk was kept up by intervention. If that had not been the case, we would have seen further milk suppliers leaving the industry. We must also take note of the weather and the high and low seasons of milk production. We have higher costs than other countries which have a longer high season than us. We have a shorter high season which gives us peaks and troughs. Processors have difficulty with production because they have either a glut of milk or no milk. These are the hardships they must put up with.

I compliment ICOS on the work done in the submission it made to the Government. It has made seven proposals which could help the Government stabilise milk production and increase it by up to 20% if the proper supports were put in place. ICOS proposes issuing contracts between suppliers and co-operatives; an order of priority; and where capacity is fully allocated and additional capacity is necessitated, those suppliers wishing to supply additional milk should contribute to the cost of the expansion. These ICOS proposals should be seriously considered by the Government, and ICOS is to be complimented on its submission. Mr. John Tyrrell is to be congratulated on behalf of ICOS and its board on tabling those proposals.

I am delighted we are having this debate on the CAP proposals. As I stated, it is very important. I hope it is not finished today and that we will return to it. The Minister was very positive in what he stated on some of the issues. He is well aware and up to speed with what is happening. The farming organisations will also welcome the opportunity to have an input.