Fresh from his Council meeting in Luxembourg on Monday the Minister for Agriculture briefed the government cabinet on Common Agricultural Policies this morning, the Dealer hears. Apparently Minister Creed's cabinet memo updated the government on CAP proposals and attempts to secure political support for an increase to the CAP budget. The memo stated that while just six countries were in favour of increasing the CAP budget originally, this now stands at 17 countries and three more are on the verge of joining.

An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said last week: "As is always the case on European issues, there can often by agreement on sentiment and policy, but when it comes to agreeing to increase budget contributions people are less enthusiastic."

Ireland is one of the countries that is willing to increase its budget contribution to the European Union.

It will be interesting to see the response to Creed's briefing from the rest of the cabinet, given that our Minister for Housing is unsure of where his milk comes from...

European council

The CAP budget issue was also highlighted at the Council of Ministers meeting on Monday. Ministers welcomed various elements of the proposals but expressed concerns about the cuts proposed by the Commission to the CAP budget in general and rural development in particular, and were sceptical as to the capacity of the new CAP to deliver genuine simplification for national authorities and farmers.

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