We have talked a lot about energy security, which is a very important issue, but I want to raise another issue that affects every household in this country and that is our food security or, more accurately, our lack of it. The Minister for agriculture describes the Government's Food Vision 2030 as strategy for a world-leading sustainable food system, but it is not a food security plan. In fact, the evidence shows that Ireland will not be able to sustain itself indefinitely without major agriculture and dietary change. We can do this the hard way or the easy way. At the moment, we are 233% self-sufficient in meat and 300% in dairy. Teagasc tells us we produce enough protein for 30 million to 36 million people, but that does not mean Irish families would have access to the food they need if imports were to be disrupted by a war or pandemic. What people buy every week is bread, cereals, pasta, fruit, vegetables, oils and all kinds of food that is largely imported. Only 10% of our land grows crops in this country. Some 90% of it is grass. Modern Irish beef and dairy farming depends on imported fertiliser, feed, fuel and machinery parts. What would this mean for ordinary families? After a two-week scenario, supermarkets would begin to show gaps in fresh fruit and vegetables. Bread would become harder to source because we import most of the milling wheat. Prices would rise. Choice would collapse. The weekly shop would suddenly cost more and people would buy less. After two months, pig and poultry products would become scarce because they rely almost wholly on imported feed. Dairy output would begin to get tighter. There would be more empty shelves. Families on lower incomes would be hit more because, as prices rise, the better-off would use their relative purchasing power to get what is available. After 12 months, fertiliser shortage would reduce grass growth and silage yields. Farmers would cull lower yield animals. Milk and beef output would fall. Ireland would still have all this calorific meat-based protein but not a balanced healthy and affordable diet. The Taoiseach is someone who is into healthy eating, and I am a vegan so I have to be, but households would have to shift to whatever is available. Grow your own might increase massively in gardens but it would not have the scale, so after five years we would have had to adapt massively.

As I said at the start, we can do this the easy way or the hard way and expand our horticulture and tillage now, reduce our livestock intensity and have a national food security plan. We have a massive opportunity to expand plant protein production. Fava beans, for example, will fix nitrogen in the soil. We can produce our own plant protein and our own plant milks but also make the soil healthier for other forms of agriculture.

The Teagasc tillage initiative scheme and the protein aid scheme have shown that farmers will grow more crops if the incentives are right. We need an actual food security strategy. I do not believe we have one.

I thank the Deputy very much for raising this very important issue. We probably need to situate this in a European and global context rather than just in a narrow national context, although I take the Deputy's point that there are vulnerabilities in terms of the importation of a range of foodstuffs and that we need a plan regarding food security on the island. Our dairy and meat industries are probably more carbon efficient than others across the globe. We export to about 170 countries, so we feed a lot of people by means of the dairy, beef, lamb and pig industries. That is a factor which speaks to European food security and food security in Britain, where a lot of Irish produce is consumed. Globally, we use a lot of our technology and expertise to help sub-Saharan African countries with climate-resilient crops and so on.

I accept the Deputy's basic premise that we need to do more in the context of horticulture and tillage. We need to look at incentives to give us greater security and capacity in that respect. The Minister for enterprise recently announced a scheme to bring flour milling back into being here. Schemes that can guarantee farmers a market or an outcome in respect of a product are important.

I do not mean to digress, but I was at a Diageo facility earlier in the week. I was interested to learn that 10% of the barley grown in the country is used by Diageo. That is quite extraordinary. About 5% of Irish dairy is used to produce Baileys, which is exported all over the world. We are part of a global food supply chain.

The Deputy has highlighted a weakness when it comes to tillage and horticulture. The dominance of meat and dairy is, to a certain extent, related to global supply chains, markets and the returns achieved. We have to work on ring-fencing good returns for tillage and horticulture into the future. Land pricing is a factor in that regard. We need to systematically identify potential weaknesses that would cause problems if global events were to restrict the supply of vital imported foodstuffs or general foodstuffs we currently import. We have seen that in the Ukrainian war, which could have had impacts on Africa as a result of the blockade in the Black Sea. Türkiye and other countries had to intervene in that regard. We see it now in an energy context in the Middle East. I accept the Deputy's general proposition that we need to be very alert to the issue of food security because we are vulnerable to global events.

I am not trying to cause panic, but we need to be prepared. We have seen the virus on the boat in the Canary Islands. What if it was a more resilient and transmissible virus? What if the Iranian war or other conflicts prevented us from getting as many boats to this country? That is the issue. Food Vision 2030 is based on exports and farm income diversification. It is not about having a national food security plan. My understanding is that there is such a plan in the Netherlands. Even within an EU context, we need a contingency plan in case something happens. That is why we need a strategic food reserve as well as our strategic oil reserve. That means giving grant aid to farmers to allow them to engage in diversification. As the Taoiseach said, a lot of this produce could be turned into animal feed if we do not need it. However, we need some homegrown food stability. I would like to see an actual food security plan.

That is fair. I will engage with the Minister for agriculture on the Deputy's overall point regarding a national food security plan. There is merit in that. In recent years, the former Minister of State, Pippa Hackett, and the then Minister, Deputy McConalogue, were very involved in supporting organic farmers. In that context, €256 million was allocated to support organic farmers. That resulted in significant five-year growth and a 5.5% increase in organic production up to 2025. About 5,500 farmers are now engaged in the organic farming scheme. That is up 223%. We have made a lot of progress on the organics side, which is related to this issue in terms of capacity. I take the Deputy's overall point and appreciate the constructive manner in which he put it forward.