John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)
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Question 504: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food his main priorities regarding Irish agriculture in the context of the forthcoming review of the Common Agricultural Policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37614/10]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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My overarching view is that we need a strong and adequately resourced CAP after 2013. This policy must support sustainable and competitive agriculture in the years ahead and, in particular, the development of our vision for the sector as espoused in Food Harvest 2020. We need to ensure security of food supply and maintain family farming in Europe. However, as an exporting country, we also need a policy that underpins competitiveness and innovation.

The first challenge will be to secure an acceptable EU budget. The second will be to ensure that the share going to agriculture will be sufficient to provide a strong and supportive agricultural policy. The third challenge will be to secure that the share of agriculture funds going to Ireland is adequate for our needs. One of my priorities in these negotiations will be to preserve the Irish national envelope. My primary aim is to secure a direct payments system that provides our fair share of funding and that supports the viability of Irish farming. As to market supports, I believe that the existing measures should be continued and enhanced. I also believe we need additional tools to address the much increased volatility in markets.

On rural development, we need to focus on the twin goals of competitiveness and sustainability. Measures that are directed at investment and which promote competitiveness perform a key role in encouraging efficiency and innovation in farming. They should be maintained and enhanced. We must also have a strong agri-environment actions in our rural development policy including targeted payments for public goods, support for the development of bio-energy on farms, and for innovative actions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Our off–farm rural development actions should be consistent with this while focusing on genuinely rural areas and emphasising job creation.

In this context, and looking to the CAP of the future, my priorities are to make sure that it:

supports farm incomes and addresses the issue of price and income volatility, while avoiding market distortions,

encourages competitiveness and innovation through appropriate measures, including support for farm investment, and

promotes sustainability, in all its dimensions, and rewards farmers for the public goods they produce.

By doing this we will ensure that the CAP delivers a secure supply of quality food to our consumers and decent incomes to our farmers, while protecting and enhancing the natural environment.