Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 29 May 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Different Approaches and New Opportunities in Irish Agriculture: University College Dublin

3:00 pm

Ms Triona McCormack:

I might ask my colleague, Professor Alex Evans, to respond to that question. He is the head of our school of agriculture and food science and is dealing with a large population of students on a daily basis who may have an aspiration to have a career in the sector. He may be able to address exactly what their feelings are about this issue. It comes back to the point about creating a different story. This is exciting stuff. If one is at the cutting edge of data analytics, which is where a great number of our young students would see themselves and want to be with regard to tech start-ups etc. There is no reason some of that cannot be translated into this environment and so doing could create a different environment. There are other elements that are limiting factors that we as a university cannot resolve in terms access to infrastructure and schools etc. However, we can share where we see other disciplines coming into farming and where people may have an aspiration to have an entrepreneurial career. There is no reason that cannot be achieved in an agrifood context. We see many opportunities there. I will hand over to Professor Alex Evans who might also like to respond.