The Minister for Agriculture, Joe Walsh, takes issue with Ruairí Quinn's case that research and technology rather than agriculture should be Ireland's desired EU Commission portfolio
A shallow attempt to link agriculture with a backward-looking approach surfaces from time to time. Last week's opinion piece by the former leader of the Labour Party, Ruairí Quinn, revealed an abysmal lack of knowledge of EU agricultural policy and indeed the importance of agriculture both within the enlarged Union and in Ireland. It cannot be left unchallenged.
The lack of acknowledgement of the fact that the agri-food sector is Ireland's most important indigenous natural resource industry confirms the attempt to denigrate the sector. The output of the agri-food sector is worth €17 billion and exports €7 billion. The Irish food industry is economically more powerful than the statistics would suggest, given its very low import content and high proportion of indigenous ownership.
Agri-food exports accounts for over 25 per cent of net foreign earnings. The levels of secondary employment and the regional spread of the industry equally are of significant importance to our economy. It is also much less likely to uproot than some modern high-technology industries.
Assisted by the €35 billion in CAP support which Ireland has received since joining the European Community in 1973, the sector has made a quantum leap in its development, from heavy reliance on commodity products to an innovative industry developing new products in 160 markets worldwide.
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the bedrock on which the European Union was founded and on which it has developed. It is a complex and evolving policy, which will continue to change in line with societal changes and demands.
Expenditure on the CAP at over €43 billion accounts for 46 per cent of total EU expenditure and impacts directly or indirectly on each of the EU's 470 million citizens because, at its core, it is concerned with the basics of life - the provision of safe and wholesome food.
But it is more than that. Agriculture is multifunctional. The European model of agriculture foresees functions beyond the supply of food, encompassing such areas as care of the rural landscape, animal welfare and the maintenance of vibrant rural communities.
Agenda 2000 explicitly established economic, social and environmental goals within a reformulated set of objectives for the CAP in order to give concrete form to the European model of agriculture. This involves more market orientation, increased competitiveness, food safety and quality, stabilisation of farm incomes, integration of environmental concerns into policy and the development of rural areas.
The CAP is also vital to the 10 new member-states - only one of them is less dependent on agriculture than Ireland. Agriculture and the CAP become of even more importance in the EU.
It has been wrongly suggested that the job of the CAP has already been done. The CAP was reformed again recently as part of its continuing evolution, but it is facing a major challenge in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Doha Development Round negotiations. Any undermining of CAP would not be to the benefit of either the 11 million farmers in the enlarged Union or EU citizens. Thankfully, contrary to what was stated in last week's piece, the EU Trade Commissioner, Pascal Lamy, has not offered to demolish all the agricultural subsidies.
The latest move in the negotiations was a joint offer by Commissioner Lamy and the Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development Commissioner, Franz Fischler, to move further on export refunds if full parallelism on all forms of export subsidisation (including export credits, food aid dumping, and certain practices of state trading enterprises) is ensured, and if a successful outcome on market access and domestic support emerges.
The WTO round will involve complex negotiations where the main focus for agriculture will be on the issues of market access, domestic support and export subsidisation. Export refunds now account for only 8 per cent of total CAP expenditure. The issues of market access and domestic support are much more important. Protection of the direct payments (in Ireland's case €1.6 billion annually) is clearly of vital interest. Likewise, the question of the EU share of world trade and the level of access for food imports into the European Union will have a major impact on the future development of European agriculture.
The negotiations, to be conducted by the trade commissioner with central involvement of the agriculture commissioner, will be undertaken in accordance with the EU Council mandate under which the fundamentals of the CAP must be protected. So in some way to imply that the game is up for the CAP exposes a frightening lack of knowledge of the rules of the game.
The attempt to suggest there is a contradiction between the interests of producers and consumers shows no appreciation that farmers have long realised their interests are best served by putting consumers first.Food safety, production standards, traceability and consumer information have been brought to the fore as part of the continuing evolution of the CAP. Indeed, one of the main achievements under the Irish presidency was the adoption of a major food and feed hygiene package. And it was the Irish presidency which brought the issue of beef labelling for discussion at the Agriculture Council.
The fact that Ireland was the first to ask for the decoupled model of payments, with the full support of the farming community, shows Irish farmers are prepared to put both market and consumer at the centre of their efforts.
Investment in research, new technology, education and training are vital to our economy and especially to the agri-food sector. Continuing the economic growth into the future will require more emphasis on such investment. The Government will continue to lead the way but it will never overlook, downplay or denigrate our most important natural resource-based industry.
What I seek, as Minister for Agriculture and Food, is an agriculture sector playing its full part as a provider of quality raw material for an advanced export-orientated food industry which contributes to economic growth and to society in general.
Joe Walsh is the Minister for Agriculture and Food