Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason he voted against a proposed temporary Europe-wide ban on the use of Neonicotinoid insecticides, when the use of these insecticides have been scientifically linked to serious harm in bees, which provide a critical pollination service to the economy; and if he received any representations from special interests in the matter. [17430/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Commission proposal was discussed at the EU Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health on 14/15 March 2013 and the resulting vote was inconclusive, with 14 Member States refusing to support the measures proposed by the Commission. Accordingly, the matter will now be tabled at an Appeals Committee meeting in late April.

I opposed the proposal on the basis that, procedurally, the EU Commission proposal should be based on the EFSA conclusions and current proposal seeks to go beyond these. The procedure to date has been for the Commission to approve (or not) an active substance, in consultation with the Member States. Then each Member State approves, or not, products, containing those approved substances, and specifies risk mitigation measures, where appropriate. The proposal is taking the decision making process away from Member States and thus ignores the principle of subsidiarity, whereby approval of an individual product at Member State level has heretofore been a matter of Member State competence. I am concerned that a precedent may be set for the future handling of active substances and authorisation of products.

I also had some technical concerns with the proposal, including the proposed prohibition for use on some crops that are not attractive to bees and the proposed prohibition for use on crops based on the time of year that they would be sown. Finally, I noted that the risk relating to the use of alternatives, to replace the prohibited neonicotinoids, has not been assessed or considered.

Prior to the vote on the Commission proposal, I received correspondence from the chemical industry, the farming sector, non-governmental organisations and members of the general public.