Dr. Aoibhinn N? Sh?illeabh?in:

What Deputy Murphy has stated is, I believe, reflected in recommendations Nos. 16 and 75. Recommendation No. 16 says, "The State must work with all stakeholders to review Ireland’s current food policy in the context of the biodiversity crisis, particularly in agriculture and marine sectors, to balance between the affordability and quality of food." We heard informally from many presenters that the EU's food policy was a cheap food policy to ensure the EU could provide for the EU. In that, we heard from certain farmers that this drove them to not have crop rotation, to use more machinery, to try to get as much out for as little as possible, but not necessarily focusing on the quality of food. This is why at the end of recommendation 16, the assembly members said it is not necessarily that we get rid of cheap food because we need all members of society to have access to high-quality food. In that regard, we might consider the vulnerable sections of the population that require such access, and some big thinking would need to happen with that. I echo what Dr. Ó Cinnéide has just said, that our food production should be in line with all of the commitments Ireland has signed up to: Agenda 2030, the sustainable development goals that everyone is talking about right now; the Paris Agreement, which is our climate agreement; the European Green Deal; and our current legal obligations to protect biodiversity, genetic resources, and water quality. We are not doing that. It is now about having an action where we can see our food policies and agricultural policies align with those other commitments we have made.