Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for taking this question. Trade policy and import substitution is an area in which he has a strong interest. Today, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine is meeting various farm organisations. One thing he will encourage is increasing grain production to help provide greater domestic food security. This is something that will be very welcome if it can be done and I am quite certain that our farmers and farm organisations can step up to the plate.

The average person in Ireland eats 54 kg of flour per year, that is quite a bit of bread and bread products, yet over 80% of the flour we use in Ireland is imported. The bulk of this comes from the UK. Something that the special committee on Brexit explored in detail is that much of the flour that we import from the UK is made with imported wheat, a lot of it coming from Canada. Under the EU rules of origin that flour is subject to tariffs and if the non-EU content is more than 15% it is subject to the full tariffs.This is already contributing to some of the cost pressures that are in place.

When it was before the Seanad Special Select Committee on the Withdrawal of the UK from the EU, Enterprise Ireland highlighted the need to look at import substitution for those that use flour in Ireland to change supply chains. This is a view that was shared by Food Drink Ireland. On top of that we see the pressure that Russia's disgraceful invasion of Ukraine will put on global food security. About one quarter of the world's wheat exports come from that region and even though we do not import much wheat from there directly, there will be a knock-on impact if wheat from that region is not contributing towards the world supply.

There are food security issues in parts of the Middle East, which I have spoken about in this House before and there will be knock-on implications on the supply coming in here. I was looking at the Chicago commodities futures market and wheat prices are 70% higher now than at the start of the year. Last week, wheat futures contracts had their largest price increase since 1959. We will see a major problem around wheat supply and as we are importing a lot of flour produced from imported wheat we should be certain that this will impact here.

If we produce all that additional grain how can we ensure that we will have commercial mills in Ireland again? There are a number of small mills here but supports should be put in place for the flour we use in our bread. A pair of brothers in County Wexford, Andrew and Raymond Kavanagh, have planning permission for a full commercial mill. They have yet to receive much support from Enterprise Ireland, in spite of some of the discussions around the Brexit adjustment reserve fund. If we look at import substitution we have to be in a position where we support those brothers or others who may wish to develop commercial mills around Ireland. We are inviting the farmers to grow more wheat so for the purposes of food security what guarantees can we put in place to ensure that we will have sufficient access to flour and ideally that we will have import substitution such that we can produce it here? I ask the Minister of State to meet those brothers or to arrange through his office for Enterprise Ireland to meet them. Food security, on a global and domestic level, is important and it is particularly important given the importance of flour to our diet. I look forward to the Minister of State’s answer.