Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 139: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the number of agrifood businesses that are in operation; the number of seafood business that are in operation; the level of employment involved in each sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10964/10]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food publishes detailed data on the structure of and employment within the agrifood sector based on two sources, the Census of Industrial Production (CIP) and the Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS), which are both published by the Central Statistics Office on an annual and quarterly basis respectively. This data is published and analysed in Department publications such as the Annual Review and Outlook and the Compendium of Agriculture Statistics. These are available under the Publications section of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food's website at www.agriculture.gov.ie.

The most recent CIP that provides the requested breakdowns (2007) indicates that there were a total of 630 enterprises in the agrifood sector with a total of 43,179 people engaged in these enterprises. Of these 67 enterprises were involved in the processing and preserving of fish and fish products with 2,089 persons engaged.

Because of methodological differences the CIP data on persons engaged will not be identical to employment data in the QNHS. One key difference is that the CIP excludes data on enterprises with less than 2 persons engaged. QNHS data indicated that in 2007 (same year for most recent CIP data), there were approximately 54,000 persons employed in the agrifood sector (average of 4 Quarters). The most recent quarter available from the QNHS (Quarter 3; 2009) indicated there were an estimated 45,700 employed in the sector. The QNHS does not give a breakdown that would allow estimates of employment in sub-sectors such as the seafood industry.