Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is welcome that the motion is being discussed on what is a red letter day for the agri-sector. Everybody in the country is aware of the importance of agriculture after today's events.

As the day of action concluded, the all-party committee on agriculture met IBEC representatives of the food and drinks industry, Irish Dairy Industries Association, Meat Industry Ireland and the consumer food section of IBEC. In light of the jobs announcement today, I refer to a statistic. One in eight jobs in the Irish economy is directly related to the agrifood sector whereas, by comparison, in Germany one in eight jobs is in the automotive industry, or car manufacturing. That is the context. We are all acutely aware how important the car industry is to Germany. Today there was an announcement of 800 to 900 jobs, plus 400 construction jobs. As far as I can recall, in the past 15 years there has not been as significant a jobs announcement, one which went back to our basic resources. All the major job announcements in that period came in sectors other than agriculture. This will probably be the biggest jobs announcement this year. At long last, the industry people described as a sunset industry is coming front and centre of the Irish economy. It was never the case that it was not in that position; it was just overlooked. That is important to bear in mind.

Although the Opposition motion does not directly refer to the CAP, these negotiations are critical. During the coming months, during the lifetime of the Irish Presidency, those negotiations will be completed. The Minister is correct to state that the first thing that must be agreed is the overall budget. One thing that has become plain during the discussions that have taken place lately is that the budget which goes towards the CAP will be based on the Commissioner's fundamental principles, namely, producing as much food as possible within the EU, doing so sustainably and supporting rural economies. It has become apparent that the last factor is key to keeping the European model of producing food to a high quality, doing so with animal welfare at the core and, critically, supporting communities. China decided lately that to keep its people in rural areas it will build around food production and agriculture, in particular, dairy.

One fact that came from today's meeting with the IBEC representatives is that there are certain areas of common purpose. Next week the committee will meet the Irish Dairy Board and Bord Bia and we hope to develop further these areas of common purpose. In regard to achieving the Food Harvest 2020 goals there are two specific areas involved - first, the coming conflict on climate change, climate change objectives and goals and our increased targets for food production; and, second, the distortion of the price take by the retail sector. This is something processors and producers absolutely have in common. We cannot achieve the targets otherwise. The delegates we met referenced a figure of a potential 30,000 extra jobs. The Minister mentioned 25,000 in his speech. In order to achieve that we have to tackle head on those two issues. We must adopt an international standard of carbon calculation to demonstrate clearly that the Irish model of food production is either the most efficient or among the most efficient. There is no point in yielding on this point in order to achieve a target that is unsustainable.

I welcome that the consumer and competition Bill will be brought to the House during this term. It is long overdue. I advocated the Bill when in opposition and I fully support all efforts to bring it to fruition.

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