Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Healy and welcome all the witnesses. We dealt with many of these issues with the previous group that was in before the committee. One of the things that struck me was malting barley and how the drinks industry presents a significant opportunity, yet we find that quite a percentage of the grain it uses is not Irish grain. Is one of the ways of assisting the industry in Ireland to put a regulation in place to ensure that ingredients for drinks products from Ireland, be they whiskey or beer, would have to be Irish produced?

A large amount of animal feed is imported into this country. I accept price is the big issue in that respect. We have the Origin Green initiative and there is a drive towards quality and traceability and promoting our meat and dairy products as premium ones. How much additional hectarage would we need to produce in this country in order to change the situation? Is it possible to do that? I am very conscious that grain and tillage is a very good land use from the point of view of the environment and is a better carbon sink than forestry or other areas we are promoting and spending a lot of money on. I am interested in hearing Mr. Healy's comments on those points.