Mr. John Comer:

I was going through the questions in chronological order as I have them written down and I get a bit passionate about that issue. Elements of CAP certainly need to be reformed. It needs to be targeted where we get best value. The external convergence piece is taking place. Internal convergence is another matter. We sit in the middle so it is not as important for us. We certainly feel that there are elements that can be reformed. I have no problem getting into a full debate on what type of reform we would like to see, if the Deputy wishes. We have a full list of what we would like to see prioritised. It would take some time to exhaust it. In general, reform is always good, even if one does not reform that much but just has a look to see if the scheme is ticking the boxes and doing what it says on the tin.

The problems caused by Brexit are huge. We have members whose cows will potentially be grazing in the EU in the morning and in a third country in the evening. From memory, 26% of Northern Irish milk is processed in the Republic. That is 9% of the total volume of the milk we process here. It is a wholly integrated processing and production infrastructure and there will be pronounced negative effects unless we get the deal right. We are certainly open to the paper that was released this morning in terms of having an all-island situation. We would like to see that fleshed out a bit to see how workable it is.

Everybody knows the details of the 60% of the cheddar and 52% for beef and so on and so forth. We would like to see a trade deal concluded. First, we have to have a transitional arrangement to get to a free trade agreement, FTA, providing for zero tariffs. That would be fundamental.

I have not addressed Senator Higgins's questions but we must move on.