Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

Like Deputy Upton, I was impressed by the number of buzzwords used by the Minister. I did not, however, hear the term "import substitution", which one finds is often missing from Government policy statements. Will the research and development to which the Minister referred address the failure to exploit the full potential of the organic sector? In a €35 million sector, 70% of product consumed domestically is imported while the last five years have seen a fall in organic acreage. Is there a case for research and development to improve technology and organic methodology to increase production and advance import substitution to exploit potential of the type the Minister pointed to in other sectors?

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