Jimmy Devins (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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Question 46: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food her key priorities under the recently announced action plan for the agrifood sector. [12210/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The action plan is the response to the report of the Agri-Vision 2015 committee, which was chaired by Mr. Alan Dukes and contained some of most senior figures in the sector including leaders of the farm and industry organisations. It also takes account of the material from a wide variety of other reports and sources such as the enterprise strategy group.

This plan is based on a well-founded belief that the Irish agrifood sector, including our farmers, and our food and drink manufacturers, can compete with the best in the world when that objective is pursued with sufficient focus, determination and skill. The plan sets out a new vision for the future of the sector in the light of new changes impacting on it such as the change to a decoupled payments regime, a more liberalised trade policy, changes in lifestyle, the clear emergence of technology and research and development as significant market drivers and major changes in the structures of farming and retailing.

The Agri-Vision 2015 action plan was produced by my Department to map out the actions needed to ensure the success of the Irish agrifood sector into the future. The drivers of its success are competitiveness, innovation and consumer-focused marketing. The following are the key points. Competitiveness — the agrifood sector exports the majority of what it produces. To survive and grow it must be highly competitive on EU and international markets. Competitiveness is not optional for such an export-oriented sector. It is the primary objective on which this plan is based. Innovation — the modern food industry is a highly sophisticated knowledge based sector in which technological progress and product innovation is unremitting. Consumer focus — meeting consumer demands on product, presentation and price is critical to continuing success.

Our vision for success is focused on the objective of ensuring that the Irish agrifood sector compares to the best in the EU and in the world in terms of knowledge base, competitiveness, innovation and marketing. Actions are required under each of these headings. There are 166 such actions and I will refer to a few of them.

Overwhelmingly the future of the sector will be decided by its capacity to meet the demands of modern European consumers. Consumers require guarantees on food safety. Irish State agencies provide world class, effective food safety systems backed up by robust traceability systems. Food safety standards are the responsibility of everybody in the food chain, private and public. There is now an increased focus by consumers on food quality, nutritional value and ethical production and we must move our production systems to meet that demand. Among the practical steps to be taken is to ensure that consumers will have country of origin information on beef products and, as soon as possible, on other meat products and the revamping and relaunch of the school milk scheme.

The food industry currently only spends 0.3% of sales on research and development. This will have to change. The food industry is a high-tech sector now and we will have to recognise this change in our investment patterns. The State is doing its part both through the direct research effort of Teagasc and the universities and through our competitive research funding programmes. These programmes have stimulated collaboration and inter-institutional partnerships and have resulted in recognised centres of excellence and many new product and process developments. These developments must be further strengthened and the expertise gained rapidly disseminated to underpin a competitive and profitable Irish agrifood sector.

Some of the practical actions under this heading include the prioritisation of Exchequer funding for research and development in the National Development Plan 2007-2013. I have already shown my intent in this area by increasing research and development funding this year.

Competitiveness is literally a life and death issue for our food firms and ultimately for the commercial future of our farms and for farm income. For this reason, this is by far the longest chapter of this plan covering over 93 specific actions. I will refer to a few of them. One of the most important is the substantial change in the milk quota system that will commence in 2007. Arrangements are being made to introduce an open-market system of transferring quotas designed to facilitate consolidation of holdings, increase efficiency and contribute to more competitive milk production. This is a very important development for our commercial dairy farmers. There are also many actions in the plan to be taken in the other areas such as small-scale enterprises, horticulture and the organic sector, forestry, renewable energy and rural development.

This plan sets out our positive vision for the future of the sector. It underlines the fact that delivering safe, high-quality, nutritious food, produced in a sustainable manner, to well-informed consumers in high-value markets is the optimum road for the future of the Irish food industry, and therefore for our farmers.

It sets out the 166 actions that are being, or will be, taken to fulfil this vision. The huge range of activities outlined makes it clear that the State and the taxpayer are doing their bit. It is vitally important that all the private interests in the sector also play their part. I am convinced that they will and I look forward to the establishment of the Agri-Vision forum, announced in chapter 7 of this plan, where we will bring all the relevant interests together and focus them on the achievement of our common aim.