Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is left to the Government to build on the potential of Food Harvest 2020 and that is what we are doing.

Before concluding, I note that it is quite extraordinary that six months out from the abolition of dairy quotas which will facilitate the Irish dairy industry to grow to its full potential over time, there is no mention of that industry in a broad Fianna Fáil motion on agriculture.

Different sectors of agriculture will have difficult years at different times. This year was a difficult year for the beef sector and we are trying to respond to it as best we can by way of structural changes in the marketplace. Next year we may well see real difficulties in dairy markets, not because quotas are going but because of the difficulties in dairy product pricing globally into the future which will impact on dairy product prices in Ireland.

We need to work collectively to respond to that with appropriate policy, and we will do that. Let us talk about the facts in terms of what we are dealing with rather than trying to pretend things are an awful lot worse than they actually are.

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