Michael Comiskey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join my colleague Senator Sean D. Barrett in wishing the Taoiseach well in his address in Brussels today. It brings to an end a very positive six months of our EU Presidency.

I congratulate the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Simon Coveney, on the deal done last Thursday on the Common Agricultural Policy. I also congratulate all of the departmental staff who travelled with him and completed many meetings in the past months on the CAP. The deal is positive for Irish agriculture and gives a degree of certainty to us until 2020. It is important now that we have good Pillar 2 schemes in place which also affect farmers and rural dwellers. It has been a good six months for us in the EU Presidency and we look forward to progress on the Pillar 2 schemes.