Mr. Seán Finan:

I will address some of the points raised. Deputy Willie Penrose and a number of other Deputies spoke about Food Wise 2025. New markets must be found for additional product. A key component would be increasing live exports, potentially to North Africa and other European markets. We must show ambition for the industry. Perhaps it would be premature to reopen Food Wise 2025 until we see where Brexit will take us in the next year, as none of us knows where the road will lead us. There are some very good elements to Food Wise 2025 which, if adopted at farm level, will definitely increase profitability through improvements in efficiency and grass utilisation. There is a wide variety of measures that should be examined.

Deputy Martin Kenny also referred to Food Wise 2025 and increasing value rather than volume. I agree fully that we should increase value. The Origin Green programme and quality assurance schemes are very important in promoting the green image and benefits or Irish produced products, including traceability.

The Deputy also mentioned trade deals, all of which must be properly and economically vetted. As an exporting nation, we depend on trade; therefore, we must be very careful as we depend on international markets to sell our products. I agree that trade deals must be properly and economically sound and not disenfranchise any indigenous sector or commodity.

Senator Tim Lombard spoke about the Common Agricultural Policy. His colleague in County Cork, Mr. Alan Jagoe, is president of the CEJA, the European Council of Young Farmers, and discussions have started in Brussels on CAP 2020. We met the Commissioner recently.

There is huge pressure on the budget. Owing to Brexit, there is huge uncertainty and it looks like we will potentially have a totally different CAP the next time. We do not know what shape it will take. It is all up for discussion and will have to be discussed in the context of how Brexit will play out.

I will address some of the other points made. I think it was Deputy Charlie McConalogue who mentioned our relationships at an EU level. As I said, we are involved with the equivalent of COPA, the CEJA, but there has not been a lot of discussion at that level about Brexit. We had a discussion with our UK counterparts after the vote, but there has not been a lot of discussion since. It is probably something that will come up in the next few months.

Deputy Thomas Pringle mentioned the beef sector and asked what a 30% to 50% tariff would mean. To be honest, I do not know. The Deputy knows as well as everyone else on the committee that the beef industry and beef farmers are under severe pressure. Anything that puts a restriction on our exports to the UK market will be passed back to farmers and have devastating consequences. In terms of putting a figure on it, I do not have one for the Deputy.

Deputy Michael D'Arcy spoke about retail markets. I notice that there is an international Bord Bia report dating back to 2011 - Retail Markets Today & Tomorrow - which was produced by independently by SCB Partners. Although it is a few years old, it does give a insight into the different-----