Horticulture Sector
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-19
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Robert O'Donoghue (LAB), Dublin Fingal West

I accept that we do not know when the war in the Middle East is going to come to a conclusion but does the Minister of State accept or acknowledge that if fertiliser prices rise again - compounded by high gas and fuel inputs - that may make many Irish fruit and vegetable producers unviable? We currently import 83% of our vegetables. This is a food security issue. There were 600 growers 20 years ago and there are 73 now. I am calling for a firm commitment to targeted supports - like the Minister, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, spoke about in the Dáil yesterday - for the horticultural sector, and a dedicated horticultural crisis fund like we brought in during the spike in prices at the start of the war in Ukraine. The agriculture sector is worth €19 billion, yet the focus in here is always on the beef and dairy sectors - fair play to them, they are well represented. My constituency is where the growers are - the market garden of Ireland in Dublin Fingal West. If we got half the attention the beef sector gets, we would be doing really well. It is time to give the horticulture sector its due to develop the potential it deserves because that is where our real food security lies.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:45+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-19