Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 237: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food his plan for the future of agriculture with particular reference to ongoing discussions at EU level; if he and his colleagues intend to ensure self sufficiency and security of supply of food throughout this country and the EU in the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44300/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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It is essential, in my view, that we maintain a strong agricultural production base in the European Union in the years to come. We must also undertake food production and distribution in a manner that is fully sustainable economically, socially and environmentally. We face daunting challenges ahead in meeting increasing demands for food, in addressing climate change, in reconciling our need to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions with our desire to produce more food, in managing our natural resources and in meeting changes in consumer demands. We must also be mindful of increased market instability and higher risks of animal and plant disease. There will, therefore, be a continuing need for an active, and appropriately resourced, European agricultural policy to achieve these objectives and to help our farmers and processors adapt to the new and emerging challenges. I believe that this must be the starting point for our future discussions.

We should in my view resist calls for the CAP to be scrapped or for any major shift in EU expenditure away from agriculture. I had the opportunity to make these points to my Ministerial colleagues from other Member States at a specially convened meeting of Agriculture Ministers in Brussels on Friday last and I found a resonance in the views expressed by a majority of Member States. At that meeting, I referred specifically to the challenges ahead in meeting increased demands for food. Indeed, I warned that any reduction in food production in the EU would be taken up elsewhere where less efficient production systems exist and would result in a heavier carbon footprint and further diminish the prospect of enhanced global food security.

I also emphasised the crucial importance of the continuation of fixed decoupled payments, of allowing sufficient flexibility in our common policy to reconcile the differing needs of Member States and regions, of the effectiveness of rural development programmes in promoting structural change and producing public goods in farming and of the critical importance of equivalent standards for imports in the context of the demands from consumers for ever-higher standards of food production.