Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)

The Minister and her two colleagues are facing a formidable challenge in the next few years. The outlook for agriculture is generally bleak when one considers that the price of milk, generally speaking, is the same as what it was in 1978 yet costs have increased over 100% since then. It is no longer economic to farm in many instances, and that is the reason many people are leaving the land in droves. Nobody seems to care about that. It appears to be the economic solution. I was speaking to an official in the Department of Agriculture and Food some time ago and he told me that only half the number of farms are sustainable. The current philosophy appears to be one of indifference towards the issue of survival on the farm.

I was examining the number of small food enterprises in my constituency ten years ago. Ninety per cent of them have gone out of business. I suggest the Minister survey the entire country and examine the number of small food enterprises that have gone out of business in the past five years. They appear to have vanished and they are not being replaced. Major support mechanisms must be put in place to encourage our small food industries.

The Ministers should support the excellent Féile Bia initiative. It deserves support but it is not getting it from the industry because it is using imported meat camouflaged as Irish meat. That is happening across the country in the tourism sector. It is a major challenge and the Minister should speak to her Minister of State about the practice which is happening everywhere. We need a total review of our agricultural policy. The three Ministers have the energy to do it and I suggest they do it immediately.

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