EU Budgets
Dail Éireann — 2026-10-01
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Thomas Byrne (FF), Meath East

Deputy Moynihan will also want to hear about the Common Agricultural Policy but I will leave it to the Minister, Deputy McEntee, to talk about whiskey.
The EU budget negotiations are exactly that; a negotiation. It is not like countries are negotiating with the EU. What is the EU? It is the member states of the EU, so it is a negotiation between the member states as to what the priorities are and how much we will spend. It is our role in the Presidency to chair those talks effectively. We have to act as an honest broker on behalf of the member states, and the Government is committed to doing that. We want to bring member states closer together on key issues, including the Common Agricultural Policy. We published our priorities for the multi-annual financial framework in the summer of last year well in advance of our Presidency so that everybody would know what our priorities were and that we could perform the honest broker role with our priorities well known at the same time. The Common Agricultural Policy has been a top priority for the Irish Government. When we go into Presidency mode we have to become an honest broker. However, it is the case that the Common Agricultural Policy is also a top priority for many other member states, although not for all. Our commitment now as honest broker is not only to listen to the domestic point of view and to put forward our domestic position. We also have to listen to the variety of opinions around the negotiating table and we have to drive the compromise among the member states that everybody can agree on.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-10-01/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:01:00+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-10-01