Vol. 429 No. 7
90 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry if any estimate has been made of the comparative total job creation potential per 1,000 hectares of different types of land use, such as forestry or different forms of agriculture.
The job creation potential per unit of area for different types of land use is difficult to determine as it depends on many factors such as the quality of the land, market access, capital investment requirements and consumer preferences. It would be very difficult to take all these variables into account to arrive at a reasonable estimate of the employment potential of different land uses.
Statistics in the area of agricultural employment concentrate mainly on existing employment in each type of farming. Given that the reformed Common Agricultural Policy aims to restrain production in some sectors the option of increasing primary production may not be practicable in many cases though there are, of course, other options for increasing farm income.
I am awaiting with interest the study by the ESRI on the Impact of Forestry on Rural Communities. I understand that this will contain data on employment in forestry and agriculture in areas with relatively poor land. This report is expected in the near future.
