Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-18-Speech-3-445"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20080618.30.3-445"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, I should like to say thank you and welcome to the Commissioner. If you have not heard it already, Commissioner, the message coming very clearly from this House is that electronic tagging is a very bad idea and it must be put to bed. If this report – and I thank Liam Aylward for his work on it – achieves anything, I would hope that it would achieve a bit of realism on electronic tagging of sheep. You have heard the reasons – it is not practical, it is too costly and sheep farmers quite simply will not wear it.
Irish sheep farmers are in an angry mood at the moment – as you know, we have taken a vote on the Lisbon Treaty – and it would be rather practical if the Commission could say, ‘Let’s listen to them and put this one to bed’. Do not bring it in.
I would like to say a few things about the report, which details the problems in the sheep sector and does it particularly well. The real solution for sheep farmers is better market prices and, if we cannot get those, a better share of the price we, as consumers, pay for lamb. We need to encourage young people to start eating this meat which, as you have heard, is a healthy product. So measures in terms of marketing initiatives to help that are very important.
I worry about Article 69. We are simply cross-subsidising between farmers and I am not so sure that would go down very well with farmers from whom the money will be taken.
I support the idea of an environmental-linked payment but I am a little concerned. We had them before and there were problems on the mountains because of it. Then – guess what – we decoupled, hoping to solve that problem, and now we are trying to recouple. But the sheep sector needs additional payments to keep farmers in business, particularly in sensitive areas.
Moving on to the task force: I am not a great fan of task forces but I am happy to support this idea if the rapporteur, as he has said, is prepared to stick with it and make sure work happens. Could I ask the Commission to clarify how many people, if any, are working in the Commission on sheepmeat? I gather very few. I think there is one person, but I would like to know.
Briefly, the experience in Ireland of a sheep strategy report is not good. A year and a half ago EUR 28 million were promised, with great fanfare, to Irish farmers. Guess what? To date EUR 9 000 have been delivered. I hope this report does somewhat better."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples