Niall Ó Brolcháin (Green Party)

The consensus that is emerging here is quite important. It is crucial that we all support the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to obtain the maximum for this country from any discussions at a European level. I have heard various Senators discussing the wearing of the green jersey in the negotiations, and it is not a great difficulty for me to do that.

The CAP developed as a result of a food security crisis following the Second World War. The purpose of the CAP under the Treaty of Rome was to secure food, stabilise markets and increase productivity and quality of food. It has achieved these goals to a large extent. The proportion of the EU budget devoted to the CAP was roughly 48% in 2006 and it is due to be cut to 32% of the budget by 2013. There are many challenges facing us in Ireland because the agriculture and food industry in this county is very important, and much more important than it is in many other EU member states. The British jokingly talked about doing away with their food industry because it was roughly 1% of their total output. That is not a joke we could make here because the industry is intrinsically a part of everything that we are.

Exports from Ireland are doing well at the moment. Food exports traditionally represent about 8% of the export market, which is very significant indeed. Senator Buttimer stated that roughly 10% of our workforce are employed in this industry, about 250,000 people. The figure is a very sustainable part of our employment, so we need to underpin it. I notice from the Irish Farmers' Journal that the Commissioner is talking about different options. The word "sustainability" seems to be consistently coming to the fore and we in the Green Party definitely support that. Sustainability is the way things need to go. We need a sustainable food sector.

We need to ensure that biodiversity and locally produced food are encouraged in agriculture policy. In order to sustain vibrant rural communities, it is important that people do not depend on monocultures or industries that may disappear overnight. It is important that we diversify. We wish to encourage a greater degree of forestry, horticulture and organic food production. This leads to my point about the ongoing debate of quality versus cost. This is seen as a clean, green island by many people across the world and products such as Irish beef get premium prices in many countries. It is quite important that we maintain that image and that we concentrate on biodiversity, and on the quality of our food.

Our grass based system for livestock is quite unique and it allows us to maintain premium prices. We already have products that are world leaders. I worked for Baileys Irish Cream, which is a fantastic product. It is often not seen as a dairy product, but the quality of that cream is second to none. People have also mentioned Kerrygold, but there are many other brands and agribusinesses here.

Low level sustainability is very important and local farmers' co-operatives, markets and food movements are vital. We should try to encourage people to buy food locally. There is nothing worse than seeing potatoes being shipped out of Ireland, passing a ship that is bringing potatoes into Ireland. It is crazy that broccoli and flowers are flown in from South America. Flying agricultural produce around the world is not a good idea.

We need to look at environmental standards when assessing quality. We need to examine the notion that we can sell food in this country that does not adhere to the same environmental standards that we demand of our own producers. The EU needs to look at this in a big way. I appreciate there are international treaties on world trade, but we need to ensure the standards we demand of our own producers are equalled by those who are importing into Europe.

The Common Agricultural Policy was first negotiated under the Treaty of Rome. We came into the EU and the CAP was already in place, but we signed up to the Common Fisheries Policy after that. About €200 billion worth of fish has been taken out of Irish waters between 1974 and 2004, and that has not always been done sustainably. That is a huge amount of money and if the CAP is being cut, then we might need to look at the Common Fisheries Policy again. There was a bit of a trade off at the time by the then Fine Gael leader, Garret FitzGerald. If we are to see a reduction in the CAP we need to look at the fisheries policy again.

People were talking to me today about bio-fuels. We need to look at alternative methods for farm families to make an income through sustainable energy, green energy and ecotourism. The future of Irish farming is not guaranteed, but we need to look at what is happening and do our utmost to support the Irish farm family on the land.