Vol. 452 No. 8
16 Mr. Cowen asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry his Department's contribution to the White Paper on Foreign Policy in view of the importance of the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference to Irish agriculture. [8925/95]
60 Mr. N. Treacy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry his Department's position regarding the White Paper on Foreign Policy in view of the forthcoming Intergovernmental Conference and given the expected impact on agriculture. [8807/95]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 16 and 60 together.
My Department's contribution to the White Paper on Foreign Policy is currently in preparation and will be considered and incorporated at the appropriate time.
The Government is fully cognisant of the importance of the agricultural sector to the economy.
In the context of the forthcoming Intergovernmental Conference and the Department's input to the Government position, will the CAP have to be further reformed to facilitate enlargement, which will be a central issue in the 1996 debate? Will the CAP budget be increased to take account of that enlargement? Is that the Minister's position and that of his Government?
The question of enlargement is not a fundamental aspect of the Intergovernmental Conference. The Intergovernmental Conference will deal with common, foreign and security policy. The decision-making powers of the European Parliament, the size of the Commission, the Union's legislative procedures and the structural treaties are some examples.
Common foreign policy would include the issue of enlargement.
I am dealing with the Intergovernmental Conference first. In regard to foreign policy, the lead Department is the Department of Foreign Affairs. As a former member of Government the Deputy will know that, in the nature of the structuring of memoranda, we have not reached the stage of bilateral contacts. As to my Department's policy, about which I am happy to be explicit, enlargement, which is inevitable but still some way down the road, does pose threats to the Irish agricultural sector and to the CAP budget, and I have a great fear that CAP prices would become world prices. That would be unacceptable to us because of our dependence on agriculture. My policy, therefore, is to ensure a transitional period before any enlargement for central and eastern European countries and separation of the agricultural issues from the political issues. This happened in regard to GATT in the context of the Blair House agreement whereby the peculiar and distinctive needs of the agricultural sector in Europe were regarded as requiring special and separate consideration.
Let me amplify my first supplementary and try to get a direct answer to a direct question. The Minister said that he expects a transitional period before full enlargement. I am asking him a simple question. Is it his and the Government's position that the CAP budget must be increased to allow for the transitional period and beyond it?
The Deputy is stretching into realms beyond the year 2000, and it would be a brave Minister who would try to predict the situation then. I am trying to be helpful in setting out the parameters. Negotiations are at a formative stage, and I support the Nalletvon Stolk report whereby we would provide technical and financial assistance to those countries whose production is falling to build them up to a level where they can participate in the CAP. We are light years away from that at present.
What would the Minister's view be if it became obvious that there would be a narrow single currency with just a few currencies moving into a single currency? Is it the Minister's view that we will join it?
I am surprised at the Deputy asking a question like that. There are many inputs to currency policy.
What is the Minister's position?
The Intergovernmental Conference is not an appropriate context in which to ask that question. We support the introduction of a single currency.
The honest answer is that the Minister does not yet know.
The Deputy's record on currency is not so hot.
