The Minister for Agriculture, Food & the Marine, Michael Creed, today announced his intentions to launch a public consultation process on the future of the CAP post 2020.
The consultation process will be open for an eight week period from Friday January 26 2018 to Friday 23 March 2018.
As part of this consultation process, Mr Creed intends to hold a series of six public meetings to consider the future of the Common Agricultural Policy. Minister for State Andrew Doyle and Minister Creed will attend and address every meeting between them.
The meetings will be an important part of the Department’s consultation process with the first meeting taking place on Monday 5 February at the Talbot Hotel in Portlaoise.
This consultation comes against the background of the launch of the European Commission’s Communication on the future of food and farming on 29 November 2017. With legislative proposals underpinning the future CAP expected in June 2018, Irish citizens will have an opportunity now to have an input.
Minister Creed said:
“It is critically important that the CAP of the future serves all of the citizens of the EU. It must support family farms and underpin the production of food to the highest standards of quality and safety. It will also be required to contribute to development of rural areas, the creation of employment and critically, to make a real contribution to environmental sustainability.
“I want to ensure that I have heard the views of Irish citizens before finalising an Irish position in the negotiations to come. These meetings will provide the public with an opportunity to have their voices heard in this critically important debate and will coincide with an invitation to make written submissions on the future of CAP. We are all interested stakeholders when it comes to our future food supply and the protection of our environment.”
Written submissions should be sent by email to cap_post2020@agriculture.gov.ie or by post to EU Division, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Floor 6 Centre, Agriculture House, Kildare Street, Dublin 2 marked “Submission on CAP post 2020”.
The deadline for receipt of submissions is the 23rd of March 2018.
