Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It would be very important. We can talk about high-end premium products and food but it must be remembered that one must get a price as well. I have some experience in the food area. Our agrifood sector works. It is highly sophisticated. There is not much more we can do as we are the best there is. We export food to approximately 181 countries. That is a significant number of destinations throughout the world. It is a big imprint.

There was reference to infant formula. As a very small country we contributed approximately 15% of the world's baby formula in 2010. That is phenomenal for a small state. I do not know if the percentage has remained the same. Infant formula, understandably, is one of the most exacting products. Farmers and food processors who bring that product to China and to other places in Asia and elsewhere deserve great credit for the high and exacting standards they reached and maintain.

It is a very protracted business opening new markets for food. We try to get food products into countries that do not reach our high standards in food production but they demand incredibly high standards of incoming products. Unfortunately, negotiations go on for years. There are protocols and memoranda of understanding are put in place. One does not just go to a market and come home and send product out the following week. It is a very protracted business. Our statutory agencies and industry have been very good at sourcing new markets.

It is ironic when one looks at Britain and the cheap food policy given that the first mission statement of the Common Agricultural Policy, which was the first common policy of the then EEC, was to provide a secure, supply of safe food for the citizens of Europe. That has been successful. We spoke earlier about the deficiencies in the European Union, as it is now, but it has been hugely successful in that core policy objective which arose out of rationing of food in Europe following the Second World War. In that context, we must be very positive about the contribution of the EU and the EEC before it.