Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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225. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on the recent report by Teagasc, Competitiveness of Irish Agriculture. [25158/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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My Department has considered the report published by Teagasc which provides a baseline analysis of the competitiveness of the Irish agricultural sector during the period 2005-2015, and against which future developments may be measured. 

Ireland’s competitive position within the EU across all the dairy, beef, sheep and cereal sectors was positive for the period 2009-2013 when measuring cash costs as a percentage of total output (including allocation of decoupled payments).  Irish dairy and cereal producers also had lower cash costs as a percentage of market based output, relative to the averages of all countries examined.

 My Department continues to engage with stakeholders to address competitiveness challenges at farm and processing level, particularly through the Food Wise implementation process. Competitiveness is one of the key themes of the Food Wise strategy, which includes detailed recommendations aimed at building on  Ireland's comparative advantages in terms of our sustainable, grass-fed production system, our positive business environment, our reputation in science-based innovation and product development and access to a young well-educated population.