00:00Agricultural ministers from all across the EU will be gathering in Brussels today for key talks to hear what exactly
00:05is at stake for them.
00:07I'm joined now by the Irish Minister for State from the Department of Agriculture and Food. That is Timmy Dooley.
00:12Good morning.
00:13Morning, Maeve. How are you?
00:14Good. Great to have you with us here. So just tell us, how is the instability in the Middle East
00:17and the ongoing war, of course, in Ukraine impacting your talks today?
00:21Yeah, but sure, it's impacting talks right across Europe. Every council of ministers are obviously concerned.
00:26And from an Irish perspective, we want to see de-escalation. That's really always the approach that Ireland has to
00:32take. Try to get a level of agreement between all sides here.
00:36And how are you getting your voice out then?
00:38Well, I think the Taoiseach has been very clear. As you know, he was in Washington recently in the celebration
00:42of St. Patrick's Day.
00:44And in his conversations with President Trump, made it very clear that Ireland can act in a role which we
00:50have been very good at as part of that de-escalation process.
00:54And did President Trump listen to him?
00:55Well, I would hope so. I think President Trump listens to people right across the world and leaders across the
01:00world.
01:01But I think Ireland's position has always been about trying to pull back from the front line, get a dialogue
01:07going.
01:08Like, all wars ultimately end. And what you would want to do is that they end with the least loss
01:13of life and least disruption to the activities of particularly in Europe member states, but right throughout the world.
01:20Because the Europeans still don't have clarity on what President Trump's plan is here to end the war.
01:25Nobody seems to have, and that's understandable.
01:27But I think as we move towards taking on the presidency in the latter half of this year,
01:32Prime Minister Martin will come into the frame very much in acting as head of that European institution.
01:40And I think, you know, from Ireland's perspective, we've always been really good at peacekeeping, peace monitoring and de-escalation.
01:49And that's again where we will try to bring our skill set to the fore.
01:52And meanwhile today, are you focusing on any particular measures to look after farmers across the board?
01:56Well, of course, the issue for farmers is very stark at the minute, particularly on the rising cost of fuel
02:01and also the cost and supply of fertiliser.
02:05We want to see a mechanism in place that the CBAM initiative can be put to the side.
02:11You know, but we need that mechanism in place that would allow that to happen.
02:15So that will be for discussion today.
02:16And again, the ongoing fuel crisis, of course, is impacting both on farmers and on fishermen and women, as Commissioner
02:22Caddis had rightly identified earlier.
02:24And what about the EU Mercosur deal?
02:26The Commission has decided it would be provisionally implemented as of the 1st of May.
02:30Does that make you angry?
02:31Well, no, we know the decision of the Commission, as you know, Ireland was not able to accept the final
02:37agreement,
02:37although we did get heavily involved in the discussions about ensuring, insofar as possible,
02:42that safeguards were there from a market impact perspective.
02:46Look, we saw from the start that there were issues around standards, environmental issues,
02:54and from that perspective, we want to ensure now that as the Commission moves into a phase of implementation,
03:00that the safeguards that were put in place are adhered to,
03:04and that the appropriate monitoring is in place to ensure that all those inspections are there.
03:08And very briefly, the EU-Australia deal?
03:09Yeah.
03:10Good or bad?
03:10Well, as you know, Ireland has deep-seated links with Australians.
03:16There's scarcely a family in Ireland that hasn't got links there.
03:18So there's real opportunities there, but obviously we'll have to see the detail.
03:21But there are significant opportunities for Ireland, both at the agri-food sector and right across all aspects.
03:28Like the EU-India deal too, a good one for Ireland, not like Mercosur, as you say there.
03:32Minister Timmy Doolan, thank you so much.
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