Mr. Liam Hanrahan:

We are already before the committee to discuss food security and food production. The OECD has placed Ireland in the top five in the EU for food security. We are in a strong position but we need to maintain that. Considering 900 million people in the world are in nutritional deficit, it is an extremely important issue. In the EU what has happened is that energy production has been outsourced and sectors such as fertiliser production have been outsourced. We all know how that is working out from a cost perspective. Considering our grass-based system in Ireland is best placed to produce food, we should be increasing food production. Reduction policies will not achieve anything environmentally either if we take scientific evidence into account. Reduction policies will not allow us to invest, to implement environmental policies and will not make room for the next generation. Food security is an important topic right now and we need to be clear that it needs to be addressed now and not in the future.