Tom Sheahan (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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Question 123: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the steps the EU is taking to reduce soaring food prices in view of the fact that the number of people suffering from hunger has increased from 850 million to 925 million in the past year. [38478/08]

Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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Arising from the food security crisis in a number of developing countries brought on by escalating global food prices, the European Union is currently finalising the details of a special two to three year programme to encourage increased agricultural productivity in developing countries. The proposal is to use surplus EU funds to create a special fund earmarked for this purpose.

Under the terms of the current Commission proposal, funds are being sourced from a variety of existing instruments and technical discussions are ongoing. It is the intention of the French Presidency to finalise this proposal for the November Budget Council.

Ireland supports the proposal which is fully in accordance with one of the principal recommendations of the recent Report of the Hunger Task Force.