Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In the context of there being a hard Brexit, the farming organisations provided statistics from the perspective of the Republic of Ireland. Given that 1 million litres of milk cross the Border every year for processing, does Brexit not offer the dairy sector an opportunity to pick up the extra capacity and provide this milk for the creameries? Likewise, 350,000 lambs cross the Border for processing in this jurisdiction every year. Do farmers in the South have the capacity to step up production and provide 350,000 more lambs per annum? Every week 10,000 pigs cross the Border for processing? Does the sector here have the capacity to process these pigs in the South rather than export them across the Border? What are the views of the delegates on these potential opportunities, taking into account the fact that all of this produce would be exported to the United Kingdom and the impact this could have in terms of future tariffs on UK imports? What would be the implications for beef farmers and the beef processing sector of a decision to impose tariffs of between 35% and 50% on beef exports from Ireland to the United Kingdom?

I ask the ICSMA to expand on its statement that it is time to look at a sustainable downsizing of the sector until prices rise to a viable level. What would sustainable downsizing involve?