Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-13
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I thank the Deputy very much for raising this very important issue. We probably need to situate this in a European and global context rather than just in a narrow national context, although I take the Deputy's point that there are vulnerabilities in terms of the importation of a range of foodstuffs and that we need a plan regarding food security on the island. Our dairy and meat industries are probably more carbon efficient than others across the globe. We export to about 170 countries, so we feed a lot of people by means of the dairy, beef, lamb and pig industries. That is a factor which speaks to European food security and food security in Britain, where a lot of Irish produce is consumed. Globally, we use a lot of our technology and expertise to help sub-Saharan African countries with climate-resilient crops and so on.
I accept the Deputy's basic premise that we need to do more in the context of horticulture and tillage. We need to look at incentives to give us greater security and capacity in that respect. The Minister for enterprise recently announced a scheme to bring flour milling back into being here. Schemes that can guarantee farmers a market or an outcome in respect of a product are important.
I do not mean to digress, but I was at a Diageo facility earlier in the week. I was interested to learn that 10% of the barley grown in the country is used by Diageo. That is quite extraordinary. About 5% of Irish dairy is used to produce Baileys, which is exported all over the world. We are part of a global food supply chain.
The Deputy has highlighted a weakness when it comes to tillage and horticulture. The dominance of meat and dairy is, to a certain extent, related to global supply chains, markets and the returns achieved. We have to work on ring-fencing good returns for tillage and horticulture into the future. Land pricing is a factor in that regard. We need to systematically identify potential weaknesses that would cause problems if global events were to restrict the supply of vital imported foodstuffs or general foodstuffs we currently import. We have seen that in the Ukrainian war, which could have had impacts on Africa as a result of the blockade in the Black Sea. Türkiye and other countries had to intervene in that regard. We see it now in an energy context in the Middle East. I accept the Deputy's general proposition that we need to be very alert to the issue of food security because we are vulnerable to global events.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-13/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:03+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-13