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

As long as I am Minister, my main priority will be to keep rural Ireland alive, vibrant and sustainable while protecting the environment that allows us to farm in the first place and keeping farming families in their communities. I look forward to taking on these challenges. We will have challenges. This is a huge sector and has a turnover of approximately €26 billion per year. Since it is huge, there will always be sub-sectors within it facing challenges that will need policy change and support to ensure people and their livelihoods can be protected. We also need to change agriculture and keep moving it in the right direction in response to global, food security and environmental challenges as they emerge.

I thank the Deputies for their input today and look forward to more detailed debate in the not-too-distant future.

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