Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 27 September 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. Gerard O'Flynn:

On the development of markets, we put a lot of funding into the meat processing sector, including the sheep meat sector, to build operational resilience and enable it to target markets further afield. Our meat companies traditionally targeted European and UK markets. In the last couple of years, through the capital investment scheme for the processing and marketing of agricultural products, we have put in around €100 million of supports to enable them to reach markets further afield and, essentially, to enable them to change their operating models to target markets further afield. We have invested in companies to achieve that.