FOOD was the State's most important industry, with gross output of an estimated Pounds 9 billion, over half of which was, exported, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food said.

Mr Jimmy Deenihan said that in the period to 1999 the food industry sub programme would see investment of Pounds 640 million by the industry, supported by the EU and the Government.

This would result in an increase in output of 25 per cent to Pounds 12 billion and an increase in exports from Pounds 4.3 to Pounds 7 billion.

The creation of 6,600 additional jobs would be a significant feature of the programme and would maintain the leading position of the food sector in employment terms, accounting as it did for 200,000 people on farms and in processing and related activities, he added.

Mr Deenihan was introducing the An Bord Bin (Amendment) Bill, which passed all stages. It increases the membership of An Bord Bin and its two subsidiary boards by the inclusion of consumer representatives.

The Fianna Fail spokesman on agriculture, Mr Brian Cowen, said the Bill was an inadequate and belated response to a crisis in the Irish food industry.

That it was necessary to bring forward legislation to allow for representatives of consumer groups on An Bord Bin underlined the futility of the policy that had prevailed to date.

Mr Des O'Malley (PD, Limerick East) said it was an extraordinary set of priorities that the Dail was considering its third Bord Bin Bill some 18 months into its existence.

His experience of such boards was that they were most effective when they had six or seven members.