Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Not unlike the Chairman, until very recently I thought milk came from bottles, but I recently learned it had moved to cartons. I am extremely impressed by the level of preparation that both Macra na Feirme and the IFA have put in. I only arrived as the Macra na Feirme presentation was beginning because I am involved in another committee. One of the things this committee set out to do was to look for solutions. As I believe the speaker from Macra na Feirme said, the problem is well rehearsed in every corner of Irish life at this stage. The amount of thought that has gone into the witnesses' work has been most impressive.

In trying to get to questions, there were a couple of things mentioned, particularly on the education side. It is an area in which I have a huge interest. In respect of the approximately 300 students mentioned which we send to the UK each year, in the event of a hard Brexit, the first problem we are going to face is the fees for those students, assuming we can get them into the UK in the first place. That is the first problem we have. The second problem that we are likely to run into is that, if standards change and they are taught to a curriculum which has different standards, recognition of their qualification when they return home will be an extremely serious challenge for members of Macra na Feirme particularly, because that organisation deals with the future farmers of the country.

The first priority set out was the relationship post-Brexit, and I think it was well set out. Firstly, I would like to say to Macra na Feirme what I said to the Ulster Farmers Union this morning - that we give them a clean canvas. We take everything that is on the table off of it. Macra can now draw or paint the canvas for us to show us what it wants. The Chairman and I met Michel Barnier and other members of the European Parliament some time ago in Brussels. They all said the same thing to us - they too know the problems and are very well-rehearsed on them. They want solutions coming from Ireland. They were not shy in saying that the solutions need not necessarily be the most intelligent or sound. Something completely off the wall may actually work for all sides as we go forward. I ask Macra to have a look at that.

Moving on to the IFA, one of the things that bothers me is whether it is an issue of taste that there are no serious markets for cheddar outside the UK. Is that an issue of taste or of competition from other parts of the world? Is there a saturated cheddar market out there? I am not sure. I know the English taste for cheddar and I have long been a fan of the same cheese myself. I am very much aware of it. Again, when we look at agrifood exports and what is happening between the UK and Ireland, I honestly cannot see a way that we can separate out North and South. From an IFA perspective in particular, it will have members whose land straddles the Border, with some land in the North and some land in the South. That seems to be a massive problem. I am not sure where we are going with that.

The IFA's products are sold on the world market as Irish beef, Irish lamb, Irish pigmeat etc. I assume our colleagues in the North of Ireland brand their produce in exactly the same way - as Irish. If we have a divergence between standards, that will be a serious problem for the marketing of our product. The IFA's aspiration to hold market share in a UK which will now be dealing on the world stage will be very hard to secure. There will be cheap Argentinian beef and cheap lamb coming from wherever. At the end of the day, there are parts of the UK where price, not quality, is the issue. I assume that we sell at the tightest prices at which we can sell. I assume massive profits are not being made from the UK market. If we are going to compete on price and price alone, because quality may not be the issue in some parts of the UK, how are we going to fare?

When the witnesses talk about the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, and I am interested in the views of both groups on this, it is my view that the European Union should be pumping in supports to allow us to diversify into other market areas and to provide for the building of a cheddar mountain or a beef mountain in order to support our industry until we have developed those markets. If this is a hard break, which looks very likely, we will have to find something outside the UK. The Ulster Farmers Union made the point this morning that even if we did diversify outside the UK into other world markets we would have to work really hard to earn the same sort of income that we are earning from the UK because we are selling premium cuts and getting the top end of that market. I would be interested in the witnesses' views on that.

Again, I ask the president of the IFA, and it is probably an unfair question to ask as he has only been in the job for about a year and a half, but if he had a clean canvas, what would he want from both governments? Clearly we cannot dictate to Theresa May what she will want from Brexit, but if he could what would Mr. Healy want? I thank the Chairman. I hope that has not been too around-the-houses.