Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

Import substitution clearly has a role to play, but it depends from where the imports come. We cannot support import substitution from taxpayers' money if the competitor is another European company from within the enlarged EU. If the company was Chinese or American, import substitution might have a role to play. This market is very small with a population of less than four million. Companies must focus on wider markets and must look at export potential, rather than substituting imports. We are trying to grow companies to succeed in selling products, not just in nearby markets but in far away ones also. The second largest market for Irish companies, after the United Kingdom, is the United States. The EU is now bigger than the US, but the US has emerged as a successful market for our new technology companies.

As the Deputy knows, I do not have responsibility for the food and fisheries sector. The food sector falls within the remit of the Minister for Agriculture and Food while the fisheries sector is the responsibility of the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources. I would like to see greater value being added in both those sectors through more processing rather than some of the activities being engaged in whereby fish from Ireland is sold in Spain. We could get much greater value from our fishing industry than we may have realised to date.

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