Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This week the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment heard that sustainability is key to the long-term competitiveness of the food sector, which is not surprising. However, Enterprise Ireland and local enterprise offices, LEOs, report that only one in seven enterprises have taken up any of the Green Offer schemes. At the same time, we have deep supply chain problems in the sector impacting on water quality, the level of food waste, labelling and packaging issues, and carbon emissions. Would the Tánaiste and Minister agree to follow the Dutch example and create a sectoral compact right across the food sector to address circular economy issues, embracing producers and consumers, the Government and retailers? It is an approach that paid dividends in Holland and we should approach it in the same way.

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