Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the three groups and thank them for their presentations. One can use the word "stark" in this case. We were all familiar with the figures before our guests came in but their presentations offer a new realisation.

Following on from the Chairman's questions, I am aware that the two Republic of Ireland organisations are lobbying continually in Brussels. The IFA is in a grouping with COPA; I am not sure about the ICMSA. In those deliberations, and our guests stated that they were lobbying in Westminster, with the collective groupings with which they are involved in other European countries in particular, how are they interacting on this issue? It is not as big an issue everywhere else as it is here. Is it an issue at all? Are they as concerned in Brussels as we are here? Are our guests getting support from them? I would like to hear about the type of engagement that is going on in that regard.

On a similar line in terms of CAP, in fairness, the Government is prepared to increase their contribution to the MFF to fill the hole that will be left if the UK leaves the European Union. We were in Brussels getting briefings on this and trying to find out what was going on. We were told in no uncertain terms that even if all the other states agreed and the budget was brought up to the status quo, there is no guarantee that the CAP budget would increase or that the extra money that would come in would go to CAP and that it might spent on immigration or climate change, or in some other area. What are our guests hearing about that? It has been a while since we were in Brussels and there have been many changes in the interim. Our guests are in Brussels on a regular basis. What are they picking up in that regard?

I do not want to be political but based on the presentations, this committee has a role to play in terms of going back to the Minister with regard to the underspend in the BEAM scheme. That is the reason we are here. I have raised this with the Minister. I have been told again, in no uncertain terms, that it is an application-led scheme, which means that €22 million will be returned. The committee has a role to highlight, on the basis of the presentations we received, that this cannot happen. If we do not spend the entire budget for the first scheme we are seen to introduce, it will send out the wrong message in the future when we go looking for funding cap in hand. I am not being political but we have a role to play in respect of that matter.

Our guests have many questions to answer. They might laugh at this one but I would like to get their take on it. I have a bull at home that I bought in Trillick, County Tyrone. The man I bought it from would have been showing bulls or heifers in Sterling, in Scotland, the week before or the week after. The deal we did was seamless. How do our guests see a deal of that nature? It might sound simple but it is not all about trade. Those types of transactions are going on farm to farm in the Republic of Ireland. They are one-off transactions. It is not all about the Lakeland Dairies organisations and thousands of pigs and sheep. Based on what our guests have seen in the proposed agreement, and Mr. McCormack mentioned disease and animal health, taking all of that into consideration, how do they see my transaction on the bull or the position of my friend in Tyrone, who shows bulls in Scotland one day and in Carrick-on-Shannon the next, selling them into the Republic of Ireland and the UK, being sorted out when we get down to the nitty-gritty?