Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 225: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the steps he has taken in the course of the EU CAP reform health checks to secure the future of Irish agriculture; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37789/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The CAP Health Check proposals are described as a fine-tuning of the 2003 reform of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP); there are three areas (i) a review of the implementation of the single payment scheme (SPS), (ii) a review of market management measures including the milk quota regime and (iii) a response to the so-called new challenges of climate change, bio-energy, water management and bio-diversity.

The dossier was presented to Ministers at the Informal May Council. A full first round examination of the texts has now been completed by the Working Groups and most of the technical and linguistic issues have been addressed. Trilateral meetings took place at the last two Agriculture Councils to identify the main priorities for each Member State and to refine the political issues outstanding. The Presidency remains confident that the proposals will be adopted as a package at the November Council of Agriculture Ministers.

The impact of the whole package of measures on Irish agriculture will clearly depend on what is agreed at the end of the negotiations. My aim in the negotiations has been and will continue to be to achieve the best possible outcome for Ireland and for agriculture. I have already outlined the issues of concern to Ireland to Commissioner Fischer Boel and the French Presidency, to Commission officials and to colleagues in other Member States. I will continue to take an active role in the discussions at every opportunity and to reiterate our priorities.

Our priorities for the health check negotiations include: seeking sufficient milk quota increases and appropriate market management arrangements to ensure a soft landing in preparation for the expiry of quotas in 2015; ensuring clear, predictable decisions are taken on milk quotas to give policy certainty to producers and to industry; opposing the substantial increases in compulsory modulation proposed by the Commission; seeking further simplification of the single payment scheme and cross compliance; ensuring national discretion in the adjustment of the single payment scheme and the operation of specific supports funded from the single payment ceiling. I have established a consultative process with key stakeholders to advise on the main issues arising in the Health Check and the output from this is feeding into Ireland's position in the negotiations.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 226: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the extent to which he has had consultation with his EU colleagues to ensure the future of European food production and food security; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37790/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The issue of food security has informed the current discussion on the CAP Health Check and the situation relating to agriculture post 2013. I raised the matter of food security with my EU colleagues at the Ministerial Council in Annecy in September. I emphasised the need to maintain a strong sustainable agricultural production base in Europe and to have an appropriately resourced common policy.

There is an increasing awareness among EU Member States that food security cannot be taken for granted in a world where demand is rising rapidly and expected to double by 2050. The Council concluded that we must maintain a strong agriculture production base in the European Union, and that we must undertake food production and distribution in a manner that is sustainable in all its dimensions, economically, socially and environmentally. I should add that at the July WTO Ministerial meeting in Geneva, Ireland and a number of other countries raised the issue of the security of food supply on a number of occasions in the context of the EC position.