Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 20 May 2004
43 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the extent of discussions which have taken place with his counterpart in Northern Ireland on the prospect of the island maintaining a genetically modified free status; and the outcome of these discussions. [14821/04]
View answerPreliminary discussions have already taken place between officials of my Department and those of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Northern Ireland in the context of developing proposals for a national strategy and best practices to ensure the co-existence of GM crops with conventional and organic farming.
EU Directive 2001/18/EC obliges member states to develop such proposals and an interdepartmental-interagency working group has been set up in my Department to, inter alia, carry out this task. The working group, as part of its work programme, is currently meeting and discussing with relevant stakeholders in the preparation of their recommendations. These discussions will include more elaborate discussions with the Northern Ireland authorities when the co-existence measures have been progressed further.
