Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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248. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the latest timetable and information at hand concerning negotiations around the CAP post-2020 at EU level; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35681/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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A number of informal discussions on the CAP post 2020 have taken place at EU level in recent months, including at the Informal Council of Agriculture Ministers in the Netherlands in May, at an informal gathering of Ministers in Chambord in France in early September, and at the Cork Rural Development Conference, which also took place in early September. More recently, the future of the CAP was discussed over lunch at this week's Council of Agriculture Ministers meeting in Brussels.

This debate is still in its very early stages. The discussions so far have been very preliminary and exploratory in nature. Commissioner Hogan has indicated his intention to undertake a wide public consultation in the first half of 2017, following which he will table a communication that will address Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's commitment to modernise and simplify the CAP. 

I am very much of the view that the CAP is a progressive policy that can make a critical contribution to addressing the strategic challenges faced not only by the European agricultural sector in the coming years, but also those facing the EU itself.  One of the key challenges will be to facilitate an increase in food production by up to 70% by 2050 in order to meet the requirements of a growing global population, while doing so in an environmentally sustainable way that also facilitates adaptation to climate change.  The CAP has been increasingly effective in this regard in recent years as it has evolved and responded to the consumer and environmental demands placed upon it, while at the same time helping farmers to deal with price and income volatility.  I will be working to ensure that it continues to do so, and to ensure that it provides a solid and effective foundation for the development of the sector into the future.