John Crown (Independent)

I was going to mention them, but as they probably intersect with the supply of water, I decided not to leave myself open on that issue. That was my first ministerial heckle; my mother will be very proud.

Worldwide, the trend is towards food shortages. As has been mentioned, we have the ability to feed ourselves many times over, as well as a sizeable number of our neighbours. That puts us in the unique position of having a strategic asset which we must protect very carefully. I support my colleague, Senator Feargal Quinn's motion and hope the Government side manages to reach a compromise on it.

As part of our strategic vision for the future it is essential that we be specific that it will be a case of thus far and no further in terms of the incursion of development on agricultural land. We have learned from the colossal mistakes of the real estate bubble that we used much of the land very unwisely. We succumbed to the temptations of short-term gains not only in terms of profits but also in terms of the wise stewardship of the land we have been given, which is an unrenewable resource. It is critical that we have a long-term view on how it should be used.

For that reason the Minister, together with his colleagues in the other Departments responsible for housing, urban development and so forth, must have a definite view on the agricultural land we have available. The default position must be that we keep it. What is certain is that the world's population, as well as Ireland's, is increasing significantly. The demand for food domestically will increase and, more importantly, food will become one of the few tangible bargaining chips we will have in a future in which we might need to import energy supplies and other raw materials which we cannot provide for ourselves.

The catch in all of this is that while we really wish to encourage the rest of the world to buy and eat our food, we must have policies to decrease our food consumption, as many of my colleagues have mentioned in this and other debates. That is the reality. We want to decrease the level of food wastage, but we also wish to decrease food consumption. Undoubtedly, other than giving up smoking and decreasing our alcohol consumption, the single best thing we could do to decrease the risk posed by many health issues that are likely to trouble us is decrease our calorie intake. We are at or near the top in calorie consumption per head of population in world league tables. As a result, we are at or near the top in the incidence worldwide for diseases such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and a number of cancers. For several years we have seen evidence that cancer of the bowel, breast and pancreas, three common cancers, is related to obesity and excessive food intake.

We must achieve a fine balance in this regard. We are not trying to put our food producers out of business, as we must keep them producing food. At the same time - we have not exactly acknowledged this, although we are beginning to do so in the case of alcohol - we must set the goal of reducing the number of calories we consume per head of population. It is not as simple as a small number of people overdoing it. The problem of excess eating is pervasive and no longer confined to a minority. Most people in Ireland will satisfy either a definition of obesity or of being above average weight. The only way to tackle this is by having explicit policies to reduce it. This will be a responsibility of the Minister as well as the Minister for Health.

I support the idea that all restaurant foods be calorie labelled. They should also be weight labelled. People should understand exactly how many grammes of food they will eat with every portion they order, in addition to understanding how many calories they are consuming.

I wish the Minister the very best as he approaches the end of his first year in what I hope will be a long tenure in office. As it will probably be coterminous with the duration of this Chamber, we probably have a vested interest in wishing him well.

It is critically important that we give a high priority to protecting the quantity of our agricultural land, by decreasing further systematic encroachment on it, and to protecting the quality of that land. There are profound market forces which will tend to drive farmers and food producers in the direction of over-farming land and not being careful about renewing the supplements which need to be put back into it. I thank the Minister for his attention.