Ollie Wilkinson (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on this amendment. Ireland has always been a country with a strong agricultural base and this remains the case with our 135,000 farm families. While many aspects of agriculture have changed and evolved, it is still an integral part of the dynamic economy. Agriculture and the agri-sector include every region of the country and are of major national, economic and social importance.

The Irish beef industry is worth €1.4 billion in foreign earnings to the economy annually. Ireland produced 560,000 tonnes of beef in 2004, exporting 495,000 tonnes and with a domestic consumption of 86,000 tonnes. With such an excess of production over consumption, Ireland is the number one exporter of beef into Europe. Irish companies are major suppliers throughout Europe and have gained a top class portfolio of retail accounts there. To put this in context, Ireland's agrifood sector accounted for 9% of gross domestic product in 2004. Jobs in the sector accounted for 9% of total employment. Exports of agrifood products accounted for 8.4% of total exports in 2004, with an estimated value of more than €7 billion.

In recent years, the focus of the Irish beef industry has been to broaden and expand its market reach at EU retail level, shifting its orientation away from international commodity markets into the higher priced internal EU marketplace. It is encouraging to note that our beef exports to the premium continental EU markets more than doubled in recent years from 72,000 tonnes in 2001 to 174,000 tonnes last year. In 2004, we exported 264,000 tonnes to the United Kingdom. This contrasts with the situation that prevailed during the 1990s when the industry exported 50% of its products to non-EU markets. It is important we protect this market.

The Irish beef industry must continue to build further sustainable market share in continental Europe. I would expect to see us expanding our reach to at least 230,000 tonnes within the next two years. This is a major marketing challenge, but it must be tackled to secure the future of the Irish beef industry. It is a task made all the more urgent by the inevitable increase in beef supply in Britain in the immediate aftermath of the cessation of the over 30 months scheme, scheduled for the end of this year, as Ireland is currently the dominant import supplier to the UK retail sector. For the future therefore, we must continue to enhance the position and image of Irish beef in the European marketplace.

In this connection, Bord Bia recently launched its Irish Beef in Europe autumn campaign. This pan-European campaign which runs from now until the end of November will see on-pack promotions in 8,000 stores across nine countries, stores frequented by some 40 million shoppers every week. The promotion has been tailored appropriately for maximum impact in each country. Bord Bia is investing €10 million over three years in its European retail marketing initiative aimed at building sales of Irish beef in European supermarkets and to establish the Irish brand firmly in the minds of consumers there.

Consumer requirements must be top of the agenda for the beef industry, as well as for the agrifood sector in general. Consumers are entitled to full assurance about the food they eat. They also want information on the origin of the meat they consume. In respect of beef, we already have in place a full identification, traceability and labelling system under comprehensive EU regulations. The labelling requirements under those regulations extend up to and including retail level and to the point of delivery into hotels, restaurants and catering establishments.

The Minister's priority in this area is to extend the existing beef labelling laws to require information on the country of origin of beef to be provided to all consumers in the restaurant and catering sectors. Specific proposals were put to Government at the end of June for a legislative framework to facilitate this by way of an amendment to the Health Act 1947. This will be introduced under the Irish Medicines Board (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2005 which will come before the Oireachtas this session. The appropriate regulations are being worked on and it is intended to have these cleared at EU level as soon as possible. When the Act is amended and the regulations made, country of origin information will be available to consumers in respect of all beef served in restaurants, hotels and the catering sector in Ireland on a mandatory basis.

In the meantime, the various representative bodies in the sector, following discussions with the Department, have agreed in advance of the mandatory legal requirement to commend to their members the introduction on a voluntary basis of a mechanism for giving consumers on their premises information on the country of origin of beef. I support the Minister's endeavours in this regard. My comments indicate clearly the need to keep Ireland's exports clean and green, which is the industry's strongest selling point.

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