Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

On bio-fuels generally, the deflection of grain, for example, in the US and elsewhere to the bio-fuel industry creates its own economics in terms of the food industry and the agri food industry in regard to demand and the cost of supplying raw material to the food industry as a result. Certainly there has been an increase in commodity prices. For European producers that has been against a background of a quite deflated market environment for some considerable time as against the large increase in inputs that has resulted in the meantime. It is only becoming a more attractive option now. Certainly grain growers have been in better spirits in the past year or two than would have been the case for the previous decade. In regard to the impact it would have on our situation here, domestically I would say the bio-fuels industry is in its infancy. We are kickstarting it and trying to get penetration of less than 5.75% in the transport fuel market. Hopefully that will work because it would be a further source of income for farmers. I do not think it will necessarily impact on the supply of grain to the food business because we have a well developed food industry here. Given our type of land and agriculture our intensive grain production should enable us to meet both markets. I do not see one at the expense of the other although I acknowledge that the overall global situation for world commodity food prices is on the up.

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