Mr. Jim Power:

I should have said in my introduction that I am chairperson of Love Irish Food and have been since its inception in September 2009. That organisation was formed in response to the pressure on the agrifood sector from cross-Border shopping during the previous currency crisis in 2008 and 2009. A year ago I was starting to question its reason for being because of the compression of grocery prices and so forth and the fact that cross-Border shopping was not much of an issue. I wondered if it had a role to play, but in the past 12 months that question has been answered firmly for me. Now, more than ever, we should be focusing on the value our agrifood sector contributes to the economy at the primary and processing levels. I firmly believe in balanced regional economic development. I am not an economist who believes that all economic activity should be centred in Dublin and that the rest of the country should be allowed to make its own way. Hence I believe we should support our agrifood sector as much as possible. I will shortly answer the Chairman's question about what else we should be doing.

Last year, our exports of agrifood to the United Kingdom were €5.1 billion while our imports were €3.8 billion. Those imports of €3.8 billion include products such as cheese, milk, biscuits and the like which we either produce or have the capability of producing. If tariffs go up on the trade from the United Kingdom into Ireland, we definitely must start focusing domestically on producing those. I could carry out research and identify everything in that regard, but looking at the UK produce on the typical supermarket shelf, it is broadly based and widespread.

Importantly, we already produce much of it or have produced in the past.

I describe myself as an economic nationalist and believe in supporting domestic business. That is the key motivator behind Love Irish Food and my involvement in it. I introduced the whole question of price compression in the grocery and agrifood sectors in my presentation, despite the fact it is not directly relevant to Brexit. However, it is a fundamental issue around Ireland's agrifood sector. I opposed the abolition of the groceries order back in the day as I thought it was a bad idea. State intervention is necessary when there is market failure. The groceries order provided a reasonable level of support for the agrifood industry. The only thing its removal actually achieved was below-cost selling of alcohol. It is highly unlikely we will see a reversal of this.

On the question of cross-Border product trade, hauliers and Senator Mark Daly's question on the Border, I am not a political expert but I find it difficult to envisage a situation where if Britain, including Northern Ireland, were to leave the European Union that we would not have a border between the South and the North. I cannot envisage a situation where a frontier between an EU country and a non-EU country would not have a border. To have otherwise is going to be incredibly difficult to achieve. From a political and economic perspective, this will be disastrous. Most of the issues around Brexit are disastrous in any event. From a UK or an Irish perspective, I cannot see the upside. The question is about the magnitude of the downside.

Clearly Ireland is a special case but I am not sure that at EU level there will be much acceptance of Ireland as such. We found out during the collapse of the banking system how much support we will get from the European Union when the chips are down. We were hung out to dry on the whole bank bailout situation by the European Union. I would expect similar treatment on the question of a hard Brexit.

Before 1999, I argued strongly that the whole European project and the euro was not a good idea and it did not make economic sense. That got me into quite a bit of difficulty with my employer at the time. The euro was a victory of politics over economics. Ultimately, when one gets a victory for politics over economics, economics will come back to bite. Since the great recession began in 2007-08, the whole European Union, particularly the euro structure, has totally failed to deal with the crisis. The structures are not in place. Europe is now muddling through again but there are significant challenges ahead. With German, French and Dutch elections in 2017, it is not difficult to envisage a political scenario which could be disastrous for the future of the European Union. Even if we do get through 2017, Europe is just waiting for the next crisis.

What can a country like Ireland do about this? We should diversify our trading relationship as much as possible, as well as the economy, so as not to be overdependent on any single sector. There is not much we can do to influence these external developments or soft or hard Brexit. At the end of the day, we will be a small player in all of those negotiations. We need to ensure our economy is as competitive and as sustainable as possible. When I talk about competitiveness, I am not talking about a race to the bottom in wages and prices. I am talking about infrastructure, IT capability and the quality of the labour force. I am straying off on this, but if one wants to look at the long-term challenges, what will differentiate Ireland when facing all these external challenges will be the quality of the workforce. That is why investment in education has to be the priority. That is what will make our economy sustainable in the events of the shocks.

The next euro crisis is just around the corner. We have not come out of the last one yet. Joseph Stiglitz's latest book on the euro crisis is not easy reading and is incredibly boring. However, it paints a difficult picture of where Europe is at the moment. Fundamentally, it is difficult to disagree with it.

Bord Bia has done a fantastic job in marketing Ireland as a food island. The challenge for it will become much more intense over the coming years in the event of a hard Brexit. We need to build other markets and consider if Bord Bia has the resources to deal with those challenges, as well as Enterprise Ireland, another State agency which builds up the export potential and capability of Irish businesses. What else can we do? Again, we need to make sure the economy is as sustainable and competitive as possible.