Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak with the CEO, the manager for planning and Government relations and the people working on start-ups in Enterprise Ireland. It is great that we get to speak to them. I am grateful to the Chairman, Senator Chambers, for creating these opportunities. As the saying goes, one cannot beat talking. We are not meeting physically so it is important that we get to hear different opinions.

I am the spokesperson on enterprise, trade and employment and on rural development. I will focus on those two areas and how they marry with the overall issues. Is there a very clear one-stop shop for business supports? As Senator Wall mentioned, there has not been a massive take-up of the existing supports by businesses.

I raised an issue with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, when he attended the committee's meeting. We have all the statistics now on what we bring in from England. I know we have trade agreements coming down the line, but we can also become more self-sufficient because we are in a new climate era and we are going to have a significant climate action Bill under which every sector will be obliged to meet its targets. Every Department will also have to meet its climate targets. The amount we import and what we do not do ourselves in this country will affect the figure considerably. We have already discussed the fact that 95% of flour is imported from England.

I wish to make two points about being more self-sufficient and creating more employment and enterprises. If we had stronger labelling in Ireland, it would help differentiate between what is Irish and what is imported, and possibly increase sales. Consumers have a big role to play in that regard. I take issue with the way we label goods. We often import produce from abroad, chop it up and process it in some shape or form to a minute extent and then it looks like it is made in Ireland. Labelling will have to be an important part of the work of Enterprise Ireland if we are serious about supporting indigenous businesses when it comes to produce. I would welcome the thoughts of the witnesses on that because it is something I have raised with the Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, about Bord Bia and its labelling. It is a big part of supporting enterprise. If products are not labelled as Irish, how can people support Irish enterprises?

We must examine the possibility of having a grant for growing potatoes. Some 80,000 tonnes of spuds a year are imported from England and 30,000 tonnes of seed potatoes are imported from Scotland. I know traffic cannot just be one way if we want them to buy from us as well, but we must figure out how we can create more jobs and business enterprises from growing more spuds and becoming more self-sufficient in some of our food staples. We import 52,000 tonnes of apples, 47,000 tonnes of onions and 23,000 tonnes of cabbage. If one shoves them in the ground, they nearly grow themselves. I am not a green-fingered person but this is low-brow growing. We really need to look at that because it would bring young people back to the land. I know I sound like a pure farmer, but we have two things; agriculture and tourism. One could say tech is a third area but it is global and it does not provide as many jobs. We must look at everything and the way we are doing everything must change. The responsibility for the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill is no longer the preserve of a section of one Department, it goes across every Department and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment will have to take it into account as well. Food security is a major issue and will be in the future, irrespective of climate. That is the case whether one believes in climate change or not. I would love to see Enterprise Ireland looking at that.

Manufacturing is another area we must examine.

We could not source any personal protective equipment gear in Ireland. Women all over the country were pulling out sewing machines trying to make a bit of a mask. Is there no manufacturing left? Does everything have to be made in Outer Mongolia, Indonesia and China given that we all wonder about the quality of the products and the pay of the workers in those places? We need to look at this as a nation. We are the Emerald Isle and we could be the greenest country in the world. As a small island with a small population, we could do this better. It would be great because it would attract more business to Ireland and more tourism. It would be a win-win. People come to Ireland expecting everything to be done in a fair and just way, workers to be treated right and green space. If we grow more food, we will have more biodiversity. So many positives can be brought from the Brexit deal if we do it right and look at our enterprises in this way. Labelling will play a huge part in this.

We have no plastic recycling in Ireland. We export all our plastic. The first step will be increased recycling in Ireland and the second step will be to reduce the amount of plastic waste. These are measures that money will be put towards and we need to think in that way. I do not know whether the witnesses have seen the waste management plan the Minister, Deputy Ryan, brought forward and the new structure of our economy set out in it. There will be jobs in this, as I am sure has been flagged with the witnesses. I raise these issues because I feel quite hopeful in some ways about the opportunities Brexit has also brought to create more jobs, including more sustainable jobs, and the greening of our country in general.