Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is a myth out there, and I come from a rural constituency and was born and reared on a farm, that we all believe we are a great agricultural exporting country. In fact, we are a much greater agricultural importing country than an exporting one. That is never mentioned. People are probably going to jump on me for highlighting this and talking down agriculture, which is not what I am doing. My job as Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts is to present the figures brought to us, report on them and put them in the public arena. One of the jobs of the Committee of Public Accounts is to put information out there so that people understand what is happening, which is all I am doing. I was surprised to see that we import much more than we export.

We can look at the money in respect of England. We get more out of this money. When I was looking at the figures earlier, I saw that we probably get a better price for some products per tonne exported. This is because in money terms, we export €13.7 billion and import €9.7 billion. It is ratio of approximately 60:40. Out of every €1 million traded, 60% is made up of exports in money terms, and 40% is imports. Perhaps we always thought that. Long may we continue to get good price.

I have learned today that we import more food than we export. I have not heard that said in the public arena.