Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)
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Question 1403: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the grounds on which the decision was made to abstain on votes taken at the European Commission on 31 August 2005 regarding the licensing of genetically modified oilseed rape seed for use as animal feed. [25471/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I assume that the parliamentary question refers to the decision of the European Commission on 31 August 2005 to authorise genetically modified oilseed rape GT73. Member states discharged their involvement in this matter at the Environment Council of 20 December 2004 where there was, under the qualified majority voting procedures, insufficient agreement to either accept or reject the proposal. Ireland was among a number of member states who abstained on the proposal in December 2004. Our abstention had regard to the long-standing positive but precautionary approach to modern biotechnology endorsed by successive Governments; the favourable opinion available to me on the product from the Environmental Protection Agency as Irish competent authority for the purposes of the relevant directive (2001/18/EC), following the agency's consultations with other relevant State agencies; the views of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Environment and Local Government; and the outcome of the earlier discussion of, and vote on, the product at the regulatory committee for the purposes of directive 2001/18/EC.