Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 32: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if, in regard to her speech at the opening of the Teagasc biotechnology centre on 6 May 2005, she intends to take steps to promote or encourage investment in research and development for the food and agricultural sector; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17385/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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As I outlined in my speech at the opening of the Teagasc biotechnology centre, my policy priority for the agrifood sector is to support the development of sustainable, competitive and multi-functional agricultural production and a food processing sector which is export oriented, innovative and consumer focused. To ensure this, agriculture and food research must provide a strong scientific foundation and capability to the farming and food sector. This requires a base of scientific excellence, knowledge and expertise all along the food chain. My Department is the primary funder for agrifood research encompassing primary production, food safety and new and innovative product and process development in the food industry. I am committed to building on the progress made to date in these areas and to strengthen agrifood research activity to meet the challenges that lie ahead.

Opportunities exist for the food industry in the areas of consumer foods, functional foods and beverages, food ingredients and speciality foods. Health concerns are now a major influence on consumers, and functional foods, that is, food for health and pharma-foods, are forecast to become key drivers of growth within the sector. The well-being and vibrancy of our agrifood industry is heavily dependent on being continually and rapidly responsive to emerging consumer demand. Without investment in research and development, Ireland's food industry will be outstripped and outpaced by others who already possess the necessary research capability to meet these demands.

The substantial state investment in internal company research and technology transfer has driven and supported the research and development agenda within food companies. These supports, together with tax incentives to encourage research and development, demonstrate the Government's ongoing commitment to the innovation agenda. Irish food companies, for their part, have encompassed the innovation challenge and are increasingly focused on accelerating their research and development activities to meet the growth opportunities. I welcome the fact that a number of leading food companies are engaging with Enterprise Ireland in advancing significant innovation and research and development projects which are market led.

The investment made in public good food research since 1994 has created a critical mass of expertise and capacity which has equipped Irish researchers with internationally respected capability. This investment is continuing under the NDP food institutional research measure which to date has provided funding of over €50 million for food research by public research institutes to support the food industry and underpin food safety.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

Such research programmes are essential to promote innovation, new product development and competitiveness in the agrifood industry and underpin the maintenance of the highest standards in food quality, safety and nutrition. A well resourced research infrastructure and good national competitive programmes also provide Irish researchers with the capacity to compete for funding in EU framework and other international programmes.

Teagasc, the agriculture and food development authority, has responsibility for the provision of research training and advisory services for the agrifood sector. The Teagasc statement of strategy sets out a new vision for its research service, of which a major part is the expansion of research on food and health, as well as ensuring competitiveness of the agricultural sector through cost reduction technologies and sustainable production systems. Part of this expansion is the new alimentary pharmabiotic centre at Moorepark, which is a development between Teagasc, Moorepark, UCC and industry to conduct research at the interface of food, pharmacology and health. Funding by my Department has contributed significantly to this centre. The centre possesses international expertise in biotechnology and probiotic technology and addresses one of the key recommendations of the agrivision 2015 foresight exercise in developing a strategic alliance between the Irish food and bio-pharmacy industry. Furthermore, the Moorepark biotechnology centre, which represents an investment of approximately €6 million since 2000, offers enormous scope and potential to companies which wish to engage in the challenge of research and development and the substantial rewards it offers.

Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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I thank the Minister for her reply, which contains all the appropriate buzzwords, such as innovation, nutritious foods and pharma-foods. However, the reality is that we lag slightly behind Europe and significantly behind the United States and Japan in terms of the percentage of GDP invested in research. In the future, these countries will be important competitors. What actions may be taken to ensure more investment in research and development, particularly in the food area?

It is important that there is interest and investment by the food industry in food research, and that should be encouraged and promoted. I am concerned to ensure such valuable research becomes widely available and is not contained within the food company. A broad and widely available research base should exist for research programmes.

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Upton tapped into the intellectual issue, which is of great concern and on which there has not been much agreement. Moorepark and the universities have conducted a lot of public good research, in particular under the FIRM programme, which will be available to all. I agree that driving research and development within the food industry is paramount if we are to compete. Large companies have been in a position to make investments. Moorepark provides access to its facilities, particularly to smaller companies. Perhaps we will all have an opportunity to visit the centre. Recently, I had the opportunity to open a new centre, which is second to none and is more than helpful in addressing the issue of supporting personal and public good research.

Public good research under the FIRM and other programmes will be important from the broad intellectual perspective. Equally, however, it will be incumbent on companies to conduct research. Enterprise Ireland and my Department have supported investment in a number of companies. Deputy Upton is correct that we must increase our investments in research. The Government has brought a number of Departments together to ensure that we reach our capacity.

Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)
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On the rights issue raised by Deputy Upton, has the Minister investigated the strategies of the other big players in the United States and Japan? China's research and development budgets have gone through the roof, with significant implications. We are lagging behind not only the US and Japan but dramatically so in the case of China. Greater investment should be made at EU level. We need to examine the rights issue and events in other countries.

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Considerable investment has been made, through Teagasc, in research. For example, investment for non-capital purposes was €118.5 million and for capital purposes, €4.5 million. Much work has been done in food research. Teagasc employs 200 scientists in nine centres. I had the opportunity in the United States to discuss the issue of intellectual property. We are prepared to look as favourably as possible on the necessity of increasing our investments. However, we also need to drive that agenda within the food industry.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Like Deputy Upton, I was impressed by the number of buzzwords used by the Minister. I did not, however, hear the term "import substitution", which one finds is often missing from Government policy statements. Will the research and development to which the Minister referred address the failure to exploit the full potential of the organic sector? In a €35 million sector, 70% of product consumed domestically is imported while the last five years have seen a fall in organic acreage. Is there a case for research and development to improve technology and organic methodology to increase production and advance import substitution to exploit potential of the type the Minister pointed to in other sectors?

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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My Department does not usually talk about import substitution as Ireland is a significant exporter of its food and drinks products.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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We are importers too.

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Very little of what we produce ourselves is not exported.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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We import 70% of organic goods.

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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There are some products we cannot produce, which is a matter we can do little to address unless we get a new climate. That could happen, God knows.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Climate change is not necessary to grow food.

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I am disappointed about organic production for a number of reasons. The price of organic produce, which we have all discussed, is high because a great deal of it is imported. We acknowledged at a committee meeting yesterday that there is nothing more organic than our grasslands and domestic methods of production. There has been significant investment in support of organic food through education and research through my Department, which provides substantial funds, and Leader companies. We have brought together quite a number of people and initiated a specific REPS programme for organic producers who are the only group in the scheme given special treatment.

I am prepared to drive the organic agenda forward as quickly as possible as I agree that there is a need for greater urgency. We will take the opportunity presented by the steering group to make further progress as I am not happy with the return on the investment we have made to date.