Mr. John Comer:

I thank the committee for giving me the opportunity to address it. It is extremely important that elected representatives of people hear from those who will be directly affected in a negative way by the decision of the UK to leave the European Union. It is valuable to have the opportunity to eyeball those people in order that we can carry a message back to ordinary civil society and our members that there are people in charge, they have a plan and inertia will not become apparent in the vacuum as we wait for the trade deal.

That is of fundamental importance. It is possible that there will be some repetition as people suggest what should be done and speak about the opportunities available. While I do not intend to read through the document we have submitted to the committee, I will verbalise some aspects of it.

The Acting Chairman has mentioned that other farm bodies have attended meetings of this committee. I will set out the perspective of the ICMSA, which represents a large body of the product produced on this island that needs to be exported from this island. When milk quotas came to an end in April 2014, we were producing 5.5 billion litres of milk. That has since increased to over 7 billion litres. The vast bulk of our milk exports go to the UK, which is the fifth largest economy in the world and the second largest economy in Europe.

I have come from a conference in the Mansion House this morning at which the future of Europe was discussed. The UK must be part of Europe, even if it is leaving the EU. Any negative effect of Brexit on trade will have a pronounced negative effect on rural communities. Brexit will reach into every parish in Ireland. That is why it is important to point out the significance of building alliances. This is a major point. I appreciate that the Government is doing its best in this regard. We must take every opportunity to reiterate the importance of building alliances with the powerbrokers in Europe with the ultimate aim of achieving a pragmatic trade agreement that caters for the free movement of goods to the UK without tariffs. That is ultimately what this is about.

I remind the committee that 60% of the cheddar produced on this island goes to the UK. Bord Bia needs to be funded. If it had all the luck and all the money in the world - even if it had magic powers - it would not be able to find new markets for such quantities of cheddar. Over 100,000 tonnes of cheddar products leave this island each year to be used by consumers in the UK. We face a phenomenal challenge in this area.

We need to build an alliance with the main powerbrokers in Europe, including Holland, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Holland has over €6 billion of trade with the UK. Ireland is second in this league table. The equivalent figures for France, Germany and Spain are €4.5 billion, €4.75 billion and €3.5 billion, respectively. If we can work with such countries to emphasise that a good deal for the UK is also a good deal for the EU, we will go a long way towards alleviating the potential negative impact of other countries that are trying to make an example of the UK and making sure there is no contagion.

I would also like to speak about currency volatility. Although the currency is relatively stable at present, a small shift would have a huge impact at primary production level. I think we need to plan for such a shift. The Government needs to put policies in place at national level to mitigate such an eventuality. We strongly suggest that a farm management deposit scheme should be facilitated by our elected representatives. They should build momentum with the Government so that this single measure is put in place as a tangible tool that can be referenced as something to mitigate the pronounced volatility that has come into the agritrade sector over the past three or four years, particularly since the Brexit referendum.

Bord Bia and other marketing agencies need to be strengthened so that markets can be diversified. There also needs to be an examination of what the potential outcomes will be. This is a fundamental point. How much will we need to invest in the UK? Will such investment be a waste of money? Can we invest there? We need to be able to make conscious decisions on a commercial basis that it is worthwhile to spend money in the UK now. I suggest politics has a responsibility to minimise the vacuum that currently exists in this regard. Politicians should try to give a steer and a direction to all our industries so that they know where the smart money should go. I know it is not simple.

I would like to comment on the trading relationship. If there is no agreement, the WTO arrangements will come into effect by default. As an imperative, we need to take part in negotiations on a transitional agreement along with the Brexit talks. If we do not take this approach, environmental and production standards will get lost.

I strongly believe one aspect of the trade deals makes no sense. Under the CETA trade deal that was agreed, 45,000 tonnes of beef will come into a Union of 28 member states. Even though we are about to lose 64 million consumers, the trade deal that provides for tariff-free tonnage is coming in just the same. Negotiators are negotiating another Mercosur trade deal with the South American bloc. We need to be cognisant that this deal incorporates 64 million consumers who will not be in the EU when it comes into force. Politicians need to suggest forcefully that the dynamic needs to change.

Every elected representative should reinforce the point that an adequate Common Agricultural Policy budget is needed to facilitate the family farm structure across Europe of which we are all so proud and which consumers say they want. By the time this structure disappears, it will be too late for consumers to do anything about it. There is a responsibility on us to uphold this imperative.

The point made by previous speakers about the possibility of a hard Border on this island has implications at local level. There are dairy farmers along the Border who will have cows grazing in the top paddock, which will be in the EU, and other cows grazing in the bottom paddock, which will be in a third country. The physical implications of that are unthinkable. Milk trucks make approximately 32,000 journeys across the Border annually to facilitate the processing of 26% of Northern Ireland's milk in the Republic. Some 11,543 cattle have gone across the Border so far this year.

The ICMSA has been referred to as a representative body for the dairy sector. I want to put the record straight on that one. There are 1.2 million dairy cows in the country. That is more than the number of beef cows. They all end up in the beef market. They are ultimately processed as beef. Therefore, we represent over half of those involved in beef production in this country also.

I did not bore the committee with the statistics because members are very familiar with them. I make no apologies for impressing on everyone here the need to mitigate the implications of Brexit. I will not get tired of making the point that as far as I can see, Brexit has no positives for rural communities or parishes. It might have the odd positive for urban areas, but not for rural communities. I thank the committee. I will be happy to take questions from members and interact with them.