Mr. Paul Kelly:

In conclusion, we have been able to demonstrate the importance, scale and diversity of the sector. There is a national strategy for the sector - Food Harvest 2020 - which is expansionary in nature. Many things have been done right by the companies and the State in terms of achieving that strategy. That is acknowledged but that positivity needs to be counteracted to a certain extent by the fact that there are a number of barriers in place, which have much to do with the complexity of the supply chain and the environment in which the sector operates in Ireland. We have highlighted a number of them.

We need faster policy implementation in certain areas to be reconsidered as much from an enterprise perspective as from a specific policy area. We believe that if we get this right and if that job potential is realisable up to 30,000 jobs can be created.