Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This debate is timely. As a proud Kildare man, it is timely in that this week we had a great announcement in Kildare. Not alone will 900 jobs come to Kildare from an indigenous company, Kerry Group, but we have the establishment of a global technology and innovation centre. It is worth noting that the site in Naas beat off stiff competition from London and Amsterdam. For those who are not aware of it, the Kerry Group has been in existence 40 years and is a highly successful public company with current annual sales in excess of €5 billion. It was launched as a public company in 1986. Its market capitalisation has grown to its current level of approximately €7 billion. It employs 24,000 people in over 140 countries on five different continents. This is an indigenous Irish company which has the confidence to invest huge resources in Ireland in an investment costing approximately €100 million. This is a huge vote of confidence in the expertise of the graduates we are producing in food science and will encourage more students to enter this area in the future.

Yesterday, at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine representatives from the food and drink industry set out the position of that industry and brought home to us its rank and importance in the economy in comparison with farming and agriculture. The Irish agrifood sector provides one out of every eight jobs in the Irish company. The point was made yesterday that one out of every eight jobs in the German economy is created by the car manufacturing industry. This is the level of impact the agrifood sector has here through its approximately 690 enterprises. The industry had €9 billion worth of exports in 2011. The target of Food Harvest 2020 will see that rise to €12 billion. The industry brings about €11.5 billion worth of purchases in the domestic economy and it involves an annual payroll of €1.75 billion. Ireland is the largest exporter of beef, lamb and dairy ingredients in Europe. Yesterday, we heard about barriers to expansion that need to be overcome. If we get it right, there is growth potential of up to 30,000 jobs in the sector.

With regard to the points made in the motion on the issue of CAP, the IFA had a day of action yesterday. What the IFA wants is what we want. We all want a CAP that is well resourced and retains Ireland's share of the CAP funds and that has flexibility for member states. Simplification of the CAP is a key issue. There are challenges around the issue of allocations. I am concerned by the comments made by Deputy Wallace because I believe there are huge implications with regard to his proposals. Ireland needs to very careful in seeking change. Moving to a national flat rate will be an issue of concern to farmers, particularly farmers in Wexford who are some of the biggest producers. These farmers have put huge investment into their farms and enterprises over the years to produce on a large scale. Some of those farmers could lose an average 86% of their income. While that is not good for farmers in Wexford, it is not good for the agriculture industry overall either.

I fully support the Minister in the move towards an approximation measure. I congratulate him on the significant progress he has made in winning over the support of countries like Spain, Portugal, Italy, Luxembourg and Denmark. This must be supported.

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