asked the Minister for Agriculture if the number of people employed in each of the following industries, bacon curing, grain milling and sugar refining has declined in the past ten years and, if so, if the trend is likely to continue.
Written Answers. - Employment in Food Processing.
287.
Employment in sugar manufacturing and refining increased marginally in the ten-year period to 1978. While employment in the bacon curing industry and in the grain milling and animal feeding stuffs industry declined by 8 per cent and 10 per cent respectively in the same period, the numbers employed in these industries have remained stable for the past three years and it is anticipated that this position will be maintained for the present. There have, of course, been increases in the outputs of these industries over the past decade, and so labour productivity has risen in all cases.