Former minister Phil Hogan can expect a baptism of fire when he faces a grilling from members of the European Parliament this morning in Brussels on his suitability to become agriculture commissioner.

The finer detail of CAP reform

THE Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture has called for the controversial Climate Change Bill to be put on hold.

The Chief Executive of the Irish National Stud is to appear before an Oireachtas Committee today to discuss recent spending revelations.

OMBUDSMAN Emily O’Reilly is to appear before an Oireachtas committee later this month to discuss her clash with the Department of Agriculture over a compensation proposal to a family whose loved ones were lost at sea.

IT is to be hoped that Environment Minister John Gormley’s intervention into the controversy surrounding the Lost At Sea scheme will prevent the simmering issue becoming a scandal.

THE traceability system for pork meat is flawed and exposed taxpayers to an excessive bill from last year’s dioxin crisis, an Oireachtas committee has said.

FARMERS have joined MEPs in urging the European authorities to help the sheep sector.

THE Agriculture Committee of the European Parliament has agreed to carry out an economic study into the future of the sheep sector in Europe.

THE primary role of agriculture is and always will be, food production, a conference on land use, organised by the RDS, was told in Dublin, yesterday.

A plea went out today for all sheep sales in Northern Ireland to resume as the scaling down of foot-and-mouth disease precautions continued.