Michael McCarthy (Labour)

Other issues arise with regard to environmental sustainability. The green image will give us an advantage in marketing and it will help us to trade internationally. The issue of climate change is relevant. There should be co-operation with other authorities, such as universities and other third level institutions, which provide training and knowledge for people such that they can train generations of people in the various strains of industry that will impact on this area in the coming years.

We must be careful not to lose these people as we did in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s to the blight of emigration. If we do, there will be a brain drain and we will not benefit from the experience and knowledge these people built up through their studies and short working lives, which has been the case in the recent examples. The jobs are simply no longer there. If we lose that expertise to other countries we will be at a significant disadvantage.

I refer to an article in this morning's Irish Examiner by Conor Power concerning the issue of resources for job creation. I realise this is separate to the Food Harvest 2020 report but there is an intrinsic link between this report and the matter under discussion because all of this relates to job sustainability, job protection and, critically, job creation.