Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 14 February 2013
299. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the progress that has been made in terms of employment creation anticipated in the south east and other regions in 2013 for the agri-food and fisheries sectors under the Food Harvest 2020 plan. [7888/13]
View answerThe focus of the Food Harvest 2020 report is to develop the agriculture, food and fishing sector and to leverage the growth envisaged in output and exports in order to protect existing jobs and to create new ones. The 215 recommendations in FH 2020 are largely capacity building measures which are directed at supporting and improving the employment potential of this sector. As such they do not directly lend themselves to annualised job figures. Indeed, the FH2020 report recognised that the greatest scope for employment gains would flow from the increased output in the dairy and aquaculture sectors. These productivity and employment gains will be in medium term, as the abolition of milk quotas will not arise until 2015 and work is ongoing to ensure that aquaculture developments comply with national and EU environmental legislative guidelines.
In relation to assessing the direct and indirect employment potential in the agri-food and fishing sector which could flow from the projected 2020 growth envisaged by the Food Harvest report, a recent academic analysis by a working group, established by the Food Harvest implementation committee, suggested that if the FH2020 growth targets were achieved that around 25,000 additional direct and indirect jobs could be created by 2020.
As part of its work programme, the FH2020 Implementation Committee is actively monitoring the 17 inter-agency projects included by this Department and relevant agencies in the 2012 AJP and has also contributed to the 2013 Action Plan for Jobs which is expected to be published next month.
