Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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214. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the estimated number of direct and indirectly employed persons in the agrifood sector. [10812/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The CSO published four Quarterly National Household Surveys (QNHS) for 2016, the most recent full year available. These showed that employment in the agrifood sector overall, including all its component parts, averaged 173,400 throughout the year. The agrifood sector represented circa 8.6% of national employment as measured by the QNHS. Full data for 2017, from the recently introduced Labour Force Survey, is expected in mid-March this year.

Other official statistics, such as the Census of Population (2016), show the wide dispersal of sectorial employment through all regions of the country. This also generates significant amounts of indirect employment in such areas, via local sourcing of inputs and consumption of goods and services.

The Food Wise 2025 strategy projects significant growth in both direct and indirect employment, arising from substantial increases in value added and export value for the sector as a whole.