Ceisteanna ó na Comhaltaí Eile - Other Members’ Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-24
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I thank Deputy Toole for her thought-provoking question and the ideas that emanate from it in terms of looking at security through a much broader lens than tends to be the case where people look at it more conventionally as military or defence capability. Food security, in my view, is a fundamental part of both economics and a nation's security and it goes to the very heart of sovereignty.
Ireland, in respect of food security, has to be looking at a European context, given our membership of the EU, but also because we export to about 180 countries. It is an extraordinary story. It is about €21 billion in exports. A lot of that is in dairy, beef, lamb, poultry, pig meat and so on and the added value products deriving from those.
There is more work we can do on the horticultural front because we import a lot as well on the vegetable side and fruit side. The Government is always open to it. We have supported horticulture and continue to do so. Over the past number of years there has been a strong investment in organic farming, in particular over the past five years. I think there has been a step-change in our approach and attitude to organic farming both within the Department of agriculture and culturally within the agricultural community. That has continued to grow.
I have received correspondence from Darina Allen in respect of the issues Deputy Toole has raised. They are pertinent. We do need to make sure we create the environment to facilitate the continued growth of healthy foods because there is a connection to cardiovascular health and health more generally in terms of fresh sourced food. That is something we will continue to work on.
The land use study will be published shortly. That will create its own debate. We will publish it and invite society generally to reflect on it. Obviously, various stakeholders will come back in respect of that.
Deputy Toole mentioned the family with the seven sons who are all tillage farmers and the access to land issue. It is an issue for tillage because they can be at a disadvantage to others who might have greater access to resources and land access is a significant issue.
Climate change is the other big factor here. Climate is going to dramatically impact food production. We can see it through drought or excessive rain and floods. We saw it all across Europe and the world in the past number of years and it is happening here too.

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Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-24