Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is complex at European level because we have the three institutions – the Council of Ministers, which is made up of the various agriculture Ministers from the 27 member states, the EU Commission, which tries to co-ordinate policy and the European Parliament. It is not necessarily that the Commission is pushing for one thing, it is more a case of the moving parts between all three institutions and the fact that 27 member states are feeding into the process.

The funding pot has been defined for the next CAP at European level. We will have to define what our domestic contribution to that is. I will be working to maximise that in every way I can. My key objective this week is to ensure that we have as much flexibility and discretion as possible to be able to make our own decisions on our national CAP plan. I do not want our hands to be tied in a way that sets our course, as I believe we should set our course ourselves during the summer in terms of developing the next national CAP. There are difficult issues involved but I want to engage with farmers from all counties and all parts of the country to frame it and to get an outcome that is ultimately fair to all types of farming and all parts of the country. That is a challenge, but it is my objective.As I engage at European level next week, it will be about trying to ensure the outcome is one that gives us the capacity to have the best CAP possible to reflect our national agricultural model and the interests of farmers across the country over the next period of up to seven years.