Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I welcome the Minister to the House. I also welcome the new plan for agriculture and the agrifood industry. I wish it every success. I have had a bias for years, which is a concern that agriculture and food need to be divided. I have confidence in the current Minister who is showing us the future in this plan. I ran into trouble some years ago. In 1994, shortly after I entered the House, I was on a committee called the expert food group, which became Bord Bia. We produced a good report and I am big-headed to speak about being on an expert food group. However, I produced a minority report on the one point with which I disagreed, namely, that the food business should be removed from the remit of the Department of Agriculture and Food. I shouted it loudly because I believed the agriculture lobby was always so strong that it weakened the food business. The future is in food business and when I read these plans I am delighted to see words such as "competitiveness" and a list of 166 actions. I do not know how we can disagree with the motion and I am sorry an amendment has been put forward.

Having said that, I am in some difficulty as to where we will go next. I confess that the temptation to say "I told you so" is strong, but I will do my best to resist, having just stated it. The difficulty I have in restraining myself comes from the fact that for more than 30 years I have sung only one song about the agrifood sector in Ireland——