Mr. Joe Healy:

I will start by responding to Senator Richmond on the new alliances. He is right when he speaks about France. The IFA is aligned throughout Europe because it is part of COPA, the European umbrella body for farm organisations. We are the only Irish organisation associated with it. I had a meeting with it last week in Brussels and will meet it again at the end of the month. We are constantly in touch with our fellow organisations throughout Europe. We have a very strong relationship with the French because we think alike on many issues and CAP is one of them. We deal with farm organisations across Europe, whether in Denmark or Belgium, or wherever. I am vice president of COPA. The president is a German who comes from the same region as the Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources, Mr. Oettinger. He came to speak at one of our recent meetings. Having those alliances and constantly building them is very important for the IFA. We not only meet at the meetings but we often meet for bilaterals too. It is crucial to have that. There is no point in our organisation looking for an extension to, for example, the glyphosate licence or an increase in the CAP budget on our own. We have to be sure we have support.

I would take issue with the comment that the IFA was lacking in the past. The one time we were lacking and got our backs behind it, the vote was carried and rural Ireland did support it. That proved how crucial the organisation is.

On Brexit, the main threat to the future funding of CAP comes from the exit of the UK. It is a net contributor to CAP to the tune of €3 billion. It gives €10 billion to the EU budget, €6 billion of that goes to CAP, €3 billion of which goes to UK farmers. If we take €3 billion out of the total CAP budget of between €56 billion and €58 billion, that is a sizeable 5% to 6% drop. There is also the question of the new EU initiatives being discussed, to do with security or defence. Our argument is that for any new priorities there must be new money.

Maybe our organisations and politicians have failed over the years to get across the benefit of CAP. People see it as a benefit to farmers across Europe. CAP has benefited the 500 million European consumers very significantly. When it was introduced in the early 1960s, 30% of the average household income was being spent on food. Today, for better quality food that is more traceable and produced to a much higher standard, only between 10% and 12% of the average household income is spent on food. CAP has allowed an adequate supply of safe, traceable, quality food to be produced at very affordable prices. Those are the threats.

To answer the second part of the question about beef, Europe is already 102% self-sufficient in beef supply. When the UK leaves it will be 116% self-sufficient in beef. The European consumption of beef is dropping year on year, for various reasons maybe because well-known models or sports stars advertise on social media against it without any scientific backup – that is possible nowadays on social media. That is why I say talk of a Mercosur deal is reckless, based on consumption dropping, an oversupply already and that oversupply getting worse, going from 102% to 116% in a couple of years' time when the UK leaves the EU.