Noel Coonan (Fine Gael)

The committee made 53 recommendations, covering all aspects of the agrifood industry. It reiterated the point that Ireland is in a weak competitive position when full economic costs are considered and the rate of productivity growth in agriculture is low in comparison with other EU countries. That is a reflection on the performance of the Government.

The Agri-Vision report took only ten months to compile, with part-time staff. It took the Minister and her mighty bunch of officials 16 months to respond to the report. She came up with 166 actions, although whether one could call them actions or rhetoric is open to question.

It is not very helpful that the Government parties and Senator Callanan did not provide the Opposition with a copy of the report. We had to chase it up ourselves.