Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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21. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the decrease in employment in agriculture, forestry and fishing in Quarter 1 2014; the reason for this decrease; the steps he has taken to arrest this downward slide in employment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26117/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The CSO’s Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) shows that there was an annual increase in employment of 2.3% or 42,700 in the year to the first quarter of 2014, bringing total employment to 1,888,200. Employment increased in nine of the fourteen economic sectors over the year and fell in five.

The increase recorded in Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing was 14.3% or 14,300, compared to the first quarter of 2013, giving a figure of 110,500 for employment in the primary sector in the first quarter of 2014.

The CSO has advised that due to necessary changes in the sampling framework introduced incrementally to reflect the 2011 Census of Population, the first fully valid year-on-year comparisons for the agriculture sector will only be available from Q4 2014. The CSO also advise that the most valid comparison for all the QNHS data is year-on-year, i.e. Quarter 1 of 2014 should be compared with Quarter 1 of 2013, rather than with Quarter 4 of 2013.

The agri-food sector makes a significant contribution to employment at national and regional levels. While the sector accounts for almost 9% of employment at national level, it accounts for 14% of employment in the BMW region. This underlines the importance of the sector at a regional level, as well as the opportunities for further development which the implementation of Food Harvest 2020 will bring.

The new Rural Development Programme will be a vital support to rural Ireland in terms of enhancing the competitiveness of the agri-food sector, managing natural resources in a sustainable manner, and ensuring the balanced development of rural areas. The Government has given a clear signal of its commitment to a strategic investment in rural Ireland and the agri-food sector by providing National Exchequer funding to bring the total amount available for RDP schemes to over €4 billion in the period to 2020.