2026-06-24

I hope I have the correct question because I submitted two. There are four issues that are separate and significant but share a common thread. Last November in Kells, County Meath, there was an important Samhain festival and food symposium. It was an excellent symposium attended by Darina Allen, where a lot of topics around food security, food safety, biosecurity, health and soil health were discussed, including the school meals programme, the possibility of sourcing these meals as locally as possible and integrating local suppliers, chefs, shops such as SuperValu and Centra, etc. There were excellent books on the issues of ultra-processed food and the production of food. All of that was linked in to chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, which are on the increase. That is the first issue. The second issue concerns a family of seven brothers - seven sons and three generations of succession farming in action. They are all tillage farmers and acknowledge the excellent support of the tillage support payment that was made. However, grain from 2025 is still in storage and we have imports from other markets with genetically modified components to them. The third issue is a land-use plan, which we are still waiting on, and the implications for renewable fuel and solar production. The tillage farmers are having difficulty accessing land to lease or purchase to produce the native grains and legumes that we require. We know we have the cost-of-living crisis and the issues around the cost of fuel. They are all linked. There is then the point of defending ourselves and biosecurity and the food that we eat, whether it is imported or we produce it ourselves. With the balance of land availability to produce the food we need but also to produce renewable energy, we have possibly a defence situation. My condensed question stems from Canadian Prime Minister Carney's presentation last week at Trinity College. It is something he also said, I think, at the World Economic Forum, and that is the question about sovereignty. There is much debate and discourse on social media and in the media on the interpretation of sovereignty vis-à-vis borders, migration etc. However, I am going to link sovereignty to our ability to feed ourselves, fuel ourselves and defend ourselves along the lines of the remarks from the Prime Minister of Canada. What specific steps are being taken to ensure we can feed, fuel and defend ourselves?

I thank Deputy Toole for her thought-provoking question and the ideas that emanate from it in terms of looking at security through a much broader lens than tends to be the case where people look at it more conventionally as military or defence capability. Food security, in my view, is a fundamental part of both economics and a nation's security and it goes to the very heart of sovereignty. Ireland, in respect of food security, has to be looking at a European context, given our membership of the EU, but also because we export to about 180 countries. It is an extraordinary story. It is about €21 billion in exports. A lot of that is in dairy, beef, lamb, poultry, pig meat and so on and the added value products deriving from those. There is more work we can do on the horticultural front because we import a lot as well on the vegetable side and fruit side. The Government is always open to it. We have supported horticulture and continue to do so. Over the past number of years there has been a strong investment in organic farming, in particular over the past five years. I think there has been a step-change in our approach and attitude to organic farming both within the Department of agriculture and culturally within the agricultural community. That has continued to grow. I have received correspondence from Darina Allen in respect of the issues Deputy Toole has raised. They are pertinent. We do need to make sure we create the environment to facilitate the continued growth of healthy foods because there is a connection to cardiovascular health and health more generally in terms of fresh sourced food. That is something we will continue to work on. The land use study will be published shortly. That will create its own debate. We will publish it and invite society generally to reflect on it. Obviously, various stakeholders will come back in respect of that. Deputy Toole mentioned the family with the seven sons who are all tillage farmers and the access to land issue. It is an issue for tillage because they can be at a disadvantage to others who might have greater access to resources and land access is a significant issue. Climate change is the other big factor here. Climate is going to dramatically impact food production. We can see it through drought or excessive rain and floods. We saw it all across Europe and the world in the past number of years and it is happening here too.

I welcome those tentative updates. Could we firm up timelines for the publication of the land use study and particularly the timelines for the issuing of solar farm guidelines? Land use in general is particularly important because a lot of local authorities are currently preparing county development plans or variations on county development plans. If we are to really have a macro-consideration of all the elements of sovereignty and of security - yes, we are part of the greater Union - we have to begin from our home standpoint. There is great value to be achieved in transportation costs, with a shorter route from farm to fork, and in terms of the reduction in additives to food if it is produced as close as possible to home.

When I mentioned Europe, I meant Ireland will be feeding a lot of Europe. That is my point. We are. In fact, I was reading Ronan McGreevy's work on Seán Lemass recently. During the war a lot of our foodstuffs went to Britain. That is an aspect of war and security that rarely gets documented or referenced but it was a significant contribution in its own way. Even globally, the work we do in Africa, particularly in terms of climate resilience advice and product and so on in terms of crops is quite strong because of our experience of famine. The point I am making trying to make is that we have a global role in terms of food security and we should maintain our own production capacity as a result of that. Regarding the solar farm guidelines, there are many guidelines falling due. Solar is growing very fast. It is now the third fuel. When we look at all the debate we have about war in Iran and fossil fuel volatility, we need a broader debate in the House on the balance here-----

Thank you, Taoiseach.

-----because we need more renewables so we are not subject and exposed to volatility on fuel prices into the future, which derails our economy very quickly.

Thank you. You will have to talk to the Chief Whip about that.

Sorry?

You said we need a debate.

I will ask her on the Order of Business.