Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 23 May 2013
193. Deputy Andrew Doyle asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide the details regarding his Department's liaison office to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations based in Rome; if he will detail his recent interactions with this UN organisation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24933/13]
View answerThe Department’s agricultural attaché in Rome combines his function as the liaison officer with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations with other consular and trade responsibilities including assisting and promoting Ireland’s agri-food business interests in Italy and neighbouring countries.
Ireland plays a full and active role in all aspects of the work of the FAO and is represented at the FAO by the Irish Ambassador to Italy. Many of the issues on the FAO agenda are cross-cutting and inter-governmental, particularly in the areas of improving agricultural productivity, promoting food security and nutrition and encouraging global economic and social development. The Irish delegation works to ensure that Ireland’s position on agricultural and development matters are well represented at FAO and promotes close coordination with the efforts of other UN actors to combat global food insecurity and hunger, as well as with the work undertaken by Irish Aid.
Ireland is actively engaged in the governance of the FAO, being a current member of the FAO Council and the FAO legal committee. Holding the Presidency of the EU, Ireland co-ordinates and represents EU member states within the many fora housed within the FAO. Ireland also chairs the Council Working Group in Brussels where the EU develops common positions. Ireland will be participating in next month’s biennial meeting of the FAO Conference. It might also be noted that the programme for the visit by President Higgins to Rome last February included a meeting with the Director General of FAO.
Ireland is currently representing the EU in negotiations to agree the FAO’s biennial budget and programme of work for 2014-15. We are actively participating in the development of principles for responsible agriculture investment fresh from our participation in the drafting of internationally accepted Voluntary Guidelines for Land Tenure, and a global strategic framework for food security and nutrition.
Ireland is a strong and active voice in the FAO for support of small holder agricultural development with a focus on women, for ensuring nutritional security, and for improving the governance of national and international efforts to combat food insecurity. In that context, we have provided funding for specific projects to run in 2013/2104 on the African Agribusiness and Agro-industries Development Initiative (3ADI), which seeks to build linkages between farmers and other stakeholders in the value chain; on global initiatives on food loss and waste reduction; on the UN One Health Project which seeks to improve integrating data collection across the One Health pillars of food safety, animal health, human health and environmental health and in order to assist contingency planning a shock modelling project to assess the impact of shocks such as natural disasters, economic crises etc on household food security.
