Richard Bruton
Ceist:134 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food his views on whether lack of competitiveness in the economy will have a negative impact on agriculture. [20184/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 6 July 2004
Ceisteanna (107)
Freagraí scríofa
Maintaining a competitive economy is vital to our future well-being. An erosion of our competitive position will have an impact on all sectors, not just the agri-food sector. Economy wide issues such as inflation, productivity and costs are being monitored, analysed and compared with the international economy and our main competitors.
The Irish agri-food sector is highly export dependent and international competitiveness is very important. My Department sponsored reports on competitiveness from Professor Gerry Boyle, NUI Maynooth and Carol Newman and Professor Alan Mathews from Trinity College. The reports have helped to enhance the understanding of competitiveness and to chart Ireland's position and compared it with our main agri-food competitors. Further work on competitiveness is being undertaken by Teagasc.
Given the importance of ensuring the competitiveness of the sector, I recently established the Agri-vision 2015 committee to revisit the Agri-food 2010 report in light of changes to agriculture since its publication. For example, the mid-term CAP review, WTO negotiations, EU enlargement and most importantly the continuing competitive position of the sector. The 2015 committee is in the process of discussing these and other items affecting agriculture and will report shortly.