Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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No, there is not. I do not accept the Deputy's underlying premise. He threw in a comment around GAEC 2 there as well. I am just making the point that European - and I will answer the specific point made by the Deputy - food security is not about every individual country producing all the food themselves. That is not food security. We are the second-most food secure nation in the world. This is not because we produce every bit of food consumed around this island here on the island. We had that time of protectionism many years ago and we were all quite poor because of it. What we should be and are doing across Europe is ensuring that the countries that can best produce food, those that can do so most environmentally sustainably and most cost-effectively, should do it. Our pasture-based system, then, means we are extremely well suited to taking inedible protein and grass through our cattle and grazing system, turn it into dairy and beef products and then export them around the world.