Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Byrne for her presentation. There is a lot of very good material in it regarding the many issues that must be dealt with in advance of and following Brexit. I am very glad that she highlighted the need for us to develop more transport links with northern Europe and elsewhere because ferry services and cargo services from this country are quite limited. We do not seem to have a value on the amount of exports that leave our country and transit through Great Britain to other destinations, including those within the EU. They leave our island, enter Great Britain, enter another EU destination and then exit the EU to go to another destination. How many checks and control systems will such products have to go through? This must be a worry. I have failed to get figures regarding what level of exports leave our country and transit through Great Britain. It is a huge issue for us and I am very glad Ms Byrne highlighted it.

With regard to food exports and the adoption of a "cheap food" policy of Great Britain, we were the victims of that policy for many years when we had no other market for agricultural products. The EU will quite rightly not agree to dumbing down food standards. The first people who would literally be up in arms against that would be the primary producers - the farmers. The farmers and the State have invested hugely in us having a very sophisticated primary agriculture production system and processing system in which we achieve very high standards. We export food and drink to something like 180 countries because of the very high standards within our food industry. Great Britain is not a large food exporter because it is a large food importer. However, I believe it exported something like £9.9 billion worth of food to the EU in 2016, which represented about 71% of its food and drink exports. It will still want the EU as a market for those products so I presume there is a very good case to be made for not accepting the dumbing down of food standards, which would suit us.

Of the groups that have engaged with us, the association is the first group that has highlighted problems relating to relocation. I can see this affecting the food industry and some other traditional manufacturing enterprises. This must be a very serious worry. Could Ms Nicola Byrne or Ms Maria Armstrong reflect and elaborate on the concerns they have been hearing regarding possible relocation to Great Britain? I will bring in my colleagues, starting with Senator Mark Daly. We will then go back to Ms Byrne and Ms Armstrong if that is all right.