Liam Aylward MEP is among a group of Irish members of the European Parliament who are hoping to stop a pesticide package which is at the present time being discussed by the Environmental committee in Brussels.
There are growing fears that the proposed legislation would reduce the number of plant protection products available to such an extent that it could threaten the European Union as well as Irish crop production and food supply.
Liam Aylward told the Kilkenny Advertiser/Carlow First on Monday that he was "absolutely in favour of the reduction of pesticides in our air, water, and food supply and also in the environment, but the proposed legislation goes way beyond its objective."
He fully agrees that pesticide use needs to be decreased, but not at a cost to food production "when inputs for farmers are increasing."
Mr Aylward also said that he has called on the European Commission to conduct an impact assessment on the effect of the proposals on food production and food supply in each member state, "but to date it had failed to do so which was unacceptable."
He also revealed that he has had tabled quite a number of amendments seeking to reverse the trend towards an impractical approach.
"I am well aware that the proposed legislation sets out to protect the internal market from distortion of competition and to protect
citizen’s health and the environment from the effects of pesticides, but as I said before it has gone too far. At the end of the day, their proposals just cannot restrict food production both in Ireland as well as Europe," he said.
