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

The national research prioritisation exercise and how it related to SHARP was born out of the wake of the financial crisis. The then Government established an independent group of mainly external experts to identify priority areas for research funding under competitively operated programmes based on set criteria. Two of those areas were smart, sustainable food production and processing and food for health. Just as was done on that occasion, we, too, will look at the present set of circumstances.

The successor to Food Wise 2025, which is our ten-year agricultural programme, will be published early in the new year. It will be key that our research plan mirrors the targets and objectives set out in that programme. We must also be aware of the challenges facing us in the coming years, many of which are already set out. There are opportunities as well as challenges in terms of the European Green Deal and the farm to fork strategy, and at the heart of those opportunities is sustainability. The Deputy can take it as given that while innovation will continue to be absolutely key, sustainability will be at the heart of our efforts in that regard, as it will be at the heart of our food strategy into the future. It is an area in which we in Ireland have real strength in terms of the story we can tell around our food production and our food and drink exports.

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