Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

I am doing so. I am talking about agriculture. This debate should be about agriculture linked to food. It is important we have a debate on food, enjoyment of food and where we want to go. I am a fan of Paulo Tullio who is a great person to articulate the views of ordinary people. In an article in the Irish Independent last year, he spoke about food miles. He said food transported from far off countries should be avoided in favour of local produce. He rightly made the point that it is not as simple as talking about food miles.

We are all committed to developing the organic food industry. The Minister of State spoke about increasing the market share to 5% by 2012 but said nothing about how we will arrive at that point. Currently, it is at 1%.