Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 136: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he is satisfied that sufficient commitment exists throughout all EU member states to the retention of the Common Agricultural Policy and further development of the EU food industry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28881/12]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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There is good support from my colleagues in the EU Council of Agriculture Ministers for the Common Agricultural Policy and recognition of the importance of EU agriculture in the context of Europe's economic and industrial recovery. This importance was acknowledged in the conclusions by the Heads of State and Government at the spring 2010 European Council and continues to be accepted by my Ministerial colleagues at each successive meeting of the Agriculture Council. Proof of that commitment can be found in the fact that the CAP is 50 years old this year and it continues to be the only genuinely common policy in the EU.

My own view is that food security in the European Union is the essence of what the new Common Agricultural Policy is about. Growing populations and increasing demand for protein-based foods, which is what we predominantly produce in Ireland through the dairy and meat industries, present a significant opportunity not only to continue, as the EU has been, to promote a sustainable way of producing food from an environmental and climate point of view but also to produce greater volumes of food. I will continue to make the case for sustainable intensification of food production, which is what agriculture should be all about.