Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 19: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food his views on the greening measures to be introduced under the Common Agricultural Policy reform; if he raised this issue at his recent meetings in Brussels; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27935/11]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Although the detailed proposals from the Commission on the future of the CAP will not be published until next week, we know from the Commission communication, the EU budget proposals and public pronouncements provided by the Commission in policy debates that the Commission is pressing for a 30% mandatory "green" component in direct payments for additional agri-environmental measures beyond current cross compliance. The "greening" measures being mooted include retention of permanent pasture, crop diversification and ecological set-aside.

Of course I fully support the idea of encouraging sustainable forms of agriculture and this is at the heart of the Food Harvest 2020 strategy. However, we need to keep things simple and to avoid creating excessive bureaucracy. While the greening measure that would be predominant in Ireland – retention of permanent pasture – should not create major compliance problems, the existence of separate greening conditions would complicate our single payment scheme. We should also be mindful of the considerable greening already in place through cross compliance. There is a further complication for Ireland in that a 30% flat rate greening component would exacerbate the movement towards uniform national or regional payment rates. I believe we should consider whether there are alternative simpler approaches to achieving the Commission's objectives.

I have discussed this and other matters related to the CAP reform with the Commission and a number of my EU counterparts. Most recently, last week I met my French counterpart, Bruno Le Maire, and we agreed on a common set of priorities for the reform of the CAP which included a commitment "to ensure that future "greening" of the direct income support schemes should be simple to apply both for farmers and Member States administrations and should not entail additional costs for either; the scope of the greening should be pegged to the budgetary resources allocated to the CAP".

John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Question 20: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food his plans to consult with the stakeholders in the farming industry here in relation to the negotiations on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27709/11]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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An initial consultation process was launched with stakeholders by my Department in July 2009 to obtain views on what EU agriculture policies would serve Ireland and the EU best in the years to come. The responses received are helping to inform our position in the very important negotiations on the future of the CAP towards 2020.

In 2010, a Consultative Committee on the CAP was set up by my Department comprising all the major farming and agriculture related representative organisations involved in Social Partnership as well as a number of academics. The Committee have met on several occasions, most recently in June and also participated in the Stakeholder event organised by my Department during the visit of Commissioner Ciolos last autumn. It is planned to have the next meeting once the formal Commission proposals have been received. My officials and I will continue to consult with farming organisations and stakeholders as the negotiations progress.