Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 365: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food her proposals placed before the EU Commissioner in Brussels on 17 May 2006 designed to aid and assist the poultry sector here currently facing severe financial hardship as a result of contraction in both the domestic and international markets for poultry meat; if approval has issued for the package of measures tabled; when she intends their implementation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23526/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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In April the Council of Agriculture Ministers adopted Regulation 679/2006 which provides a legal basis for exceptional market support measures for the poultry sector where there are serious market disturbances directly attributed to a loss in consumer confidence arising from the avian influenza situation. I submitted a proposal to the Commission requesting co-funding and approval for a range of measures to assist those in the industry who suffered financial losses arising from the recent disturbances in the poultry market. These proposed measures included schemes of payment to breeders who had to destroy hatching eggs and reduce their breeding stock capacity, to growers and processors who had to reduce throughputs and to operators who had to carry unusually high stock levels of poultry meat due to a virtual collapse in our export markets.

The Commission has now presented its first outline of a draft regulation for the information of Member States. This draft includes only some of the measures in my proposal. I along with a number of other Member States raised the issue at Council this week and pressed for the extension of the range of measures being considered by the Commission. The matter will come up again for discussion and probable vote at the meeting of the management committee for poultry meat and eggs on 21 June. My delegation to that meeting will present the case for further measures to be included. The Commission will be aiming for consistency across all Member States who have proposed schemes as regards the types of measures that will be allowed and the rates of funding. It is my intention that once any measures are approved by the EU, we will expedite implementation of the appropriate schemes here as soon as possible.