Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending and I also thank members. Everybody agrees the beef industry is important. It will remain our largest sectoral export if it is taken care of. It would be a shame after all the investment in recent years in quality, education and genomics and having come through numerous difficult times caused by scandals to re-establish markets, that this could be undermined by a fear among those who are willing to invest in production that they will not be guaranteed a reasonable margin. It is worrying to hear that the Derrypatrick project was promoted only by Teagasc. I would have hoped that it would have been promoted by Teagasc in conjunction with farmers, the meat industry and Bord Bia. It is essential if we are to grow this sector and put it on a footing where people know that if they invest and make a financial commitment and young people know they can have a career and invest in this as a business and put an effort in, they will be rewarded. It is regrettable that a project such as Derrypatrick did not have all stakeholders involved in it from the beginning.

The committee has work to do on this issue and we will consider it. I thank everyone for attending and discussing this issue in one hearing. It has been a long meeting. I thank the witnesses for waiting because the other four contributors took longer than anticipated but it was worthwhile. It was important to thrash out the first hearing in order that we can move on with our deliberations.

I remind members that a meeting of the select committee will be held on Thursday morning.