Tony McLoughlin (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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717. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on the progress of the Food Wise 2025 strategy, including progress on the actions detailed therein; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21366/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Food Wise 2025, the new ten year strategy for the agrifood sector published in July last year, replaced Food Harvest 2020. It identifies the opportunities and challenges facing the sector and provides an enabling strategy that will allow the sector to grow and prosper. Food Wise includes more than 400 specific recommendations, spread across the cross-cutting themes of sustainability, innovation, human capital, market development and competitiveness; as well as specific sectorial recommendations. The implementation process for any strategy is vital for its success. I chair the Food Wise High Level Implementation Committee (HLIC), with high level representatives from all the relevant Departments and State agencies. The committee reviews progress on detailed actions on a quarterly basis, in order to identify and solve problems quickly. Stakeholders regularly present to the committee meetings on their priorities for particular sectors or themes and by the end of this year, the HLIC will have reviewed in detail progress on the five cross-cutting themes and the twelve individual sectors outlined in Food Wise 2025. So it is very much a live and continuously updated process. For example, the HLIC convened, following the UK vote to leave the EU, to agree on a coordinated approach for the agri food sector.

I will launch the first year progress report on Food Wise 2025 tomorrow; the report will be available later this week on the Department’s website.