Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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39. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the input his Department is making to the public consultation about to commence on the CAP post-2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4844/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The European Commission's public consultation process on the future of the CAP post-2020 is being launched by Commissioner Hogan today, 2nd February.  The consultation process will take place over a 12-week period, and takes the form of a questionnaire covering a number of potential policy priorities such as sustainability, simplification, risk management tools, financing and generational renewal.  It is a vehicle for stakeholders and interested parties to contribute to the process of reflection on the future of the CAP. My Department will be engaging with the Commission and with other Member States through this initial phase and throughout the negotiation process.

Commissioner Hogan has indicated his intention to follow up the consultation with a stakeholder conference in July, and to present a communication on the future CAP in November of this year.

The future of the CAP is an issue of enormous importance for the agriculture sector in Ireland and across Europe.  The CAP has evolved considerably and very effectively in recent years, in response to changing market, consumer and environmental demands.  It also plays a central role in delivering the smart, sustainable and inclusive growth sought under the Europe 2020 strategy.

It is important that the CAP continues to evolve in a way that supports the achievement of European priorities, particularly in the context of securing a strong CAP budget for the post-2020 period. This can only be achieved by reinforcing the relevance and effectiveness of the policy in helping to achieve broader societal goals.

My Department is conducting a detailed policy analysis on the future shape of the CAP, taking into account what we see as the key challenges ahead.  These include:

- the need to support the sustainable growth of food production, in order to meet the requirements of a growing global population while at the same time facilitating adaptation to climate change and mitigation against further change;

- the need to implement modern and innovative measures to help mitigate the impact of increased global market volatility, including that caused by geopolitical issues, on farmers' incomes;

- the need to more effectively promote and support generational renewal.

On sustainability, I think we need to consider ways in which we can support sustainable intensification of food production in a more coherent and focused way than is currently the case. This would involve a more holistic approach, for example by being clear about our objective - production of more food in an economically and socially sustainable way - and then identifying measures which allow us to achieve this objective. Our Beef Data and Genomics Programme is a good example of how we can simultaneously enhance both sustainability and production efficiency, and I think can serve as a model for future approaches.  Similarly, our support for knowledge transfer initiatives, which help to encourage on-farm innovation in the drive towards more sustainable forms of production, is something that can be built upon by the future CAP. 

In terms of helping farmers to build greater resilience in the face of market volatility, I think we need to consider the use of more modern, and more innovative, measures. There have been some interesting developments in recent times in the areas of fixed price contracts, futures markets and hedging arrangements, and I think we need to further explore these, and other, measures that encourage farmers to make provision for volatile incomes.  

We are of course at a very early stage in considering the shape of the future CAP. I will participate actively in the debate, which will begin to intensify over the coming months at Council level. I very much welcome the Commission's public consultation, which will make an important contribution to the process.