Mr. Joe Healy:

The Minister attended one of our council meetings. There were two main issues. First, we had the cost competitiveness issues on which we were lobbying for the budget, including diesel and low-cost financing. Brexit was the other one. We proposed the need for adequate funding to be given to source markets elsewhere, which is related to what I mentioned earlier about Bord Bia. We also discussed adequate resources in the Department, especially on the veterinary side, so that if markets are secured in other places, they will not be held up by a delay in veterinary certification etc.

We have been involved at Oireachtas events. Rowena Dwyer, our chief economist, attended one of them last week as I was out of the country. We have also had a number of meetings with personnel from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.