Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak to the motion. This debate presents an opportunity to highlight the good news story of increasing exports in the agri-food sector. The Food Harvest 2020 strategy offers major opportunities to the dairy sector to significantly expand and will substantially increase agri-food exports. While this is welcome, I sound a cautionary note because the strategy could cause problems. We are hearing mixed messages about providing on-farm jobs. It will be pointless to pursue the strategy if it does not deliver additional employment. I am concerned that as farmers and landowners take the opportunity to pursue the strategy, smaller, less viable land holdings will find it increasingly difficult to compete. While I am reluctant to sound a sour note, it would be regrettable if the strategy resulted in a net loss of jobs in the dairy sector.

I strongly encourage stakeholders in the dairy industry. On-farm entrepreneurs are being encouraged to ratchet up production via acquisitions and other means. However, if processing and supporting infrastructure are not similarly ratcheted up, increased production will be pointless and we will not achieve our targets in terms of increases in exports and values. We may even experience a net loss in the number of farm jobs. We must be careful, therefore, to encourage off-farm businesses to ratchet up their capacity. In many cases, increasing capacity on farms requires increased or changed breeding programmes which will require an effort over three years. We are trying to encourage farmers to change their breeding programmes and increase capacity and production, while skirting around the super-levy issue. In this respect, we must be careful to send the correct messages.

The motion and the amendment refer only briefly to aquaculture, one of the key growth areas of the economy. In the past ten years Ireland has lagged far behind other countries in promoting our aquaculture industry. Norway which has a similar coastline and enjoys similar advantages to Ireland produces 100 times more in aquaculture than we do. Scotland has made considerable progress in aquacultural production in recent years and currently produces ten times more in this area than Ireland. Global demand for aquacultural products is significant. For every 1,000 tonnes of aquacultural products produced, seven jobs can be created in coastal and peripheral areas. If we could increase production to Norwegian levels, we would create 7,000 jobs. This figure cannot be ignored and I hope the Minister will take it on board.

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