Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an plé seo. Is é seo an cine ábhair a bhí pléite go mór ag an comhdháil treas-Teorainn i gContae an Dún an deireadh seachtain seo chaite.

CAP reform was one of the big items discussed at the all Ireland parliamentary conference. It is one of the areas where we can all agree, both North and South. We need to benefit in the best way possible from the discussions on reforming the Common Agriculture Policy after 2013. This is very important, given the drastic fall in farm incomes in recent years. In 2009 farm incomes fell by 30% and average farm income is well below the average industrial wage. It was interesting and welcome to note that Commissioner Ciolos, when he met members of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Food here two weeks ago, assured them that there would be no threat to direct payments. He also stressed the need to preserve the European model of farming based on family farms and the centrality of food security for the future of the CAP and European farming.

While my party and the farming organisations welcomed the introduction of decoupling and the advent of the single farm payment in 2003, it has not proven to be the panacea that many thought it would be. While it has provided a certain level of income security, it is not sufficient to maintain farm families. Nor have the market opportunities that were promised once payments were decoupled from subsidies and premiums in most cases materialised. It has been somewhat of a missed opportunity and not what we expected in 2003. The average single farm payment for most farmers is extremely low and a small percentage of larger producers receive the vast bulk of payments. This has led many, including my party, to look at the structure of payments, which needs to be central to the negotiations on the post-2013 reform package.

There are issues related to modulation on low payments, with a large proportion of the payments going to a small number of people many of whom, disgracefully, are not farmers at all, but agribusinesses which have acquired entitlements. We will certainly be proposing changes both on a lower limit, below which modulation does not take place, and on an upper limit on the amount to which one single person or business ought to be entitled.

There are other issues affecting food security. Although the threat that seemed to be posed by the WTO proposals made by the former European Commissioner, Lord Mandelson, appear to have abated, it is vital that the EU ensures the CAP does not become a sacrificial lamb - pardon the pun - in any wider trade agreement. That is vital not only in order to protect the interests of farmers but also to avoid having much of Europe's food supplies sourced from outside Europe. Given that food security was the motivation behind the CAP in the first instance when the memory of the food shortages after 1945 were still very much alive, it would be criminal if that threat was revived as a consequence of a simplistic adherence to the so called "free market".

The next reform of the CAP must also reconsider how farmers might be encouraged to engage in new forms of production, which was claimed to be one of the key factors behind the introduction of the decoupled single farm payment. Farmers could take advantage of a number of areas both in food and in areas such as bio-fuels with the income security provided by the single farm payment. However, as I have said, that does not appear to be the case in the vast majority of instances.

Domestic policy of course also has a part to play but we have been slow in devising a new strategy since 2003 to capitalise on new opportunities. That has been addressed in two reports by my party colleagues, Deputy Ferris, who produced a report on farming post-decoupling in the west, and Deputy Morgan, who produced a report for his committee on the potential represented by the agrifood sector. We need to reread those reports, which were adopted by all the parties in those committees, to establish how we can start to implement them.

We need to focus on where we can gain comparative advantage, which needs to be a factor as we engage in the debate which is taking place on the 2013 reform. I trust there will be close co-operation between the Departments and Ministers with responsibility for agriculture on both sides of the Border in the interests of farmers throughout the island.

It was a unique experience to be in Newcastle, County Down, with 120 parliamentarians agreeing on a common framework. While certain issues separated us in the past, on agriculture we had a senior Unionist, who has been an MEP for many years, and the Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, Michelle Gildernew, MP, MLA, talking about the threats and challenges that face us as an island after 2013 with both reaching agreement. We need to capitalise on that aspect and approach the issue of what will happen post-2103 from an all-island perspective.