John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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323. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of the Programme for Government commitment to review the role, structures, and strategic focus of State agencies in the food sector and to ensure that their programme of work is fully aligned with future Government and emerging EU policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51627/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I work closely with the State Agencies under the Department's remit on an ongoing basis, and there is continuous collaboration across the wide range of our shared responsibilities.

As well as this ongoing liaison, the implementation process for our agri-food strategies provides a more formal opportunity for coordination of our work.

For some twenty years, the Irish agri-food sector has benefited from having a coherent, stakeholder-led vision and strategy to underpin the sector’s continued development. These strategies are coordinated and monitored by a High-Level Implementation Committee, which I chair, and which includes the Heads of the relevant State Agencies (Bord Bia, BIM, Enterprise Ireland and Teagasc), as well as representatives from relevant Government Departments.

On the question of a more formal review, it is anticipated that these will be undertaken as part of the periodic critical reviews of the State Agencies.