Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Scannell. He has dealt with a fair amount of the subjects in which we are interested. Food security comes down to the work that has always been done at European level to ensure the supply and the quality. As Mr. Scannell said, supply on a world basis is not going to be the issue, but price will be a major one. What is the disaster reckoning and what plans are put in place if there are difficulties with releasing that 10 million to 11 million tonnes of Ukrainian wheat and other necessary foodstuffs? We have seen it already happen on some level in the energy sector, and it can take a long time for this to happen, where there is a reorientation in respect of who is buying from whom and who falls into what particular camp. All of it is the outworking of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

From listening to Mr. Scannell as regards food, and many new terms are being bandied about regarding the importance of resilience and strategic autonomy, Europe is okay at present. However, I am wondering about the plans that are in place. There are two issues. We all see the European Union on its best day as a force for good in the world. However, it also exists within the world and we know that globalisation and the world economic system have taken a complete reorientation. It is how we cope with that and what disaster planning is put in place, particularly for those areas that will be under severe pressure such as the Horn of Africa and areas in the Middle East. Where is the European Union and the Commission as regards that disaster planning?

Again, whatever the issue is with regard to food, energy is where there could be real difficulties for all of us over the next while.