Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the two representatives and I thank them for their comprehensive report. I wish to tease out a little more information to get to the kernel of the issue and for report purposes. I am on the record as saying - I do so on a weekly basis with the different groups who appear before us - that we are all hoping for the best but we must think and plan for the worst case scenario. With this in mind, from a farming perspective, during the campaign one of the selling points of the side canvassing for Brexit was the crippling EU standards and red tape that farmers have to meet. I am a farmer and I know there are days when it is frustrating. Northern Ireland farmers would not have to maintain those standards if the UK went on a solo run, to coin a phrase. If the farmers in the North intend to trade with any other EU country, tariff-free or otherwise, their product will not be accepted unless it is to an equal standard at least. What do the witnesses think of this? The farm sector may maintain the standards but it will be policed by a different body even if it is not policed by Brussels or Strasbourg. While the process may be identical and if things get tweaked on paper to have, in theory, better standards going forward, it may not be recognised as such within the EU. I would like to hear the thoughts of the Ulster Farmers Union on that issue.

I acknowledge the points raised in regard to the break-up of the Northern Ireland Assembly. It must be very frustrating for farmers with no assembly, no Parliament and no Government at the moment. Where do they go with their concerns? I would like to know where the Ulster Farmers Union was in respect of lobbying before the breakdown of the Assembly. The Irish Farmers Association - the UFU sister group here in the South - will appear before the committee later today and I will ask it the same question. I would like to know what level of contact both organisations have with each other, how closely they are working together and how intertwined are the approaches.

Aside from the trade aspect, for my sins I have a small interest in breeding pure-bred Aberdeen Angus. At the Carrick-on Shannon show, which is the biggest one, more than 50% of the cattle on show and for sale are from Northern Ireland. Have we gone that far down the line if there is a hard Border? How will events such as this be affected? Will the breeders and farmers from Northern Ireland be able to show their stock in Ireland? How will the different standards affect this? Trade aside, the Ulster Farmer's Union might look at the overall picture of an all-island activity. Some would consider this to be a hobby or a sport. While it is within the farming remit, farmers are not in it to make money, they are in it for the love of it. This is just one example. How badly will events such as this be affected with a hard Border?