Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I tabled these questions and it would be expected that a Green Party Member's primary interest would be in emissions reduction in the production of our food, but in this case it is not. In this case it is in horizon scanning. The Minister will remember when our sugar market was deregulated. There was a situation where we were not allowed to import raw cane sugar and we had a sugar beet industry here on this island. We were told as we approached the point where the raw cane sugar was to start coming in that the Irish consumer would support the sugar beet industry and would be happy to pay the 5 cent or 10 cent extra on a bag of sugar, but what happened was that our beet industry collapsed. People seamlessly changed to the slightly cheaper brand of sugar and suddenly we were in bother. I have a real worry about our dairy industry because, if we crack alternative milks, be it through precision fermentation or whatever else, that will have an immediate impact on the milk cheque that pays for the new dairy that has been installed, the loan someone has taken out for slurry management on their farm and all of those things. I want to have a sense that the Minister’s Department is scanning the horizon for these threats because, by God, it will have a serious and profound impact on our dairy industry if somebody cracks this technology.

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