Economists studying the linkages between the agriculture, food, forestry and marine sectors as well as the rest of the Irish economy have developed a model to analyse their evolution and inform public policy decisions.

For example, the Bio-economy Input Output model was used to help the committee tasked with putting together the

“Of the 162,000 jobs in the bio-economy in 2010, there were an additional 45,000 jobs elsewhere in the value chain. As much of the bio-economy is located in rural areas, this impact can have a particularly strong effect on rural job creation,” he added.

Dr Amaya Vega of NUI Galway said that shipping and marine transport, forestry products and cattle farming were among the top five of 99 sectors studied in terms of the multiplying effect their development had on the rest of the Irish economy.