Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. I do not know how the Minister does it. I am wrecked just listening to all the comments on what is going on over Brexit.

It is hard enough to be a Senator, not to mention sorting out the Brexit issue for the country.

I am very interested in enterprise, trade and employment and rural development, on both of which I am spokesperson. We must have looked in great detail at the amount we import from Britain. Something I raised earlier today in the Seanad is that in the future this country needs to be resilient because of Brexit, Covid, climate change and who knows what else is coming down the road. To that end, I would value access to the figures the Department of Foreign Affairs has on exactly what we are importing from England. I hear all sorts of figures, such as 42,000 tonnes of potatoes and onions and all sorts of mad things. If we cannot grow potatoes in Ireland, there is something seriously wrong. I know the Minister is going to sort it all out, with everybody behind him, but I would like access to figures. We should try to become more resilient and use the figures we have when dealing with Brexit to see how the country can reduce our imports for both climate change and resilience reasons. We should put our land to good use and see what we can do for ourselves.