Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. I welcome the delegations to the meeting. We are talking about being prepared. This is something new for everybody. No matter how well we are prepared, there will be very serious problems. Farming organisations and farmers, particularly in this country, need the support of Europe on this occasion. Everybody is talking about the effect it will have on Ireland, but Britain exports many goods to Ireland. There will be a knock-on effect in that regard. I hope there will be a deal because farmers have suffered enough in recent years. The situation at this time might not be perfect but the cattle and sheep sectors are both going a little bit better than they were. We were prepared and we were sending a significant amount of beef abroad. I hope that Bord Bia, the Government and everybody else are out there looking for new markets.

Mr. Cullinan is correct that if there is a no-deal Brexit, there will also have to be no deal in terms of food being imported into Europe on top of the deal that is already in place whereby food may be brought into Europe. What we cannot allow to happen is for companies from outside the EU to start exporting cheap food to Britain, which would affect Irish farmers. If the rest of Europe stands by on that issue, we are the ones who will suffer most. We must ensure that Europe is 100% behind us and supportive of us. It will have to be supportive of Irish farmers, particularly in terms of funding. I know there are several schemes. The French are looking for funding and everybody else will be looking for it, but we will be the ones affected most by this and we need the support of both the Government and the European Union to ensure they give us the funding we need. I hope we are ready. We do not know what is coming down the line; nobody does. No matter how well prepared we are, we just do not know what will happen.

If there is one thing they are good at in Europe and we are good at in Ireland, it is bureaucracy. By God, if we are going to have more paperwork and more hold-ups at ports and elsewhere, we have a serious problem coming down the line. If there is one thing we are good at, it is paperwork and holding people back. To give a simple example, who did the Garda Covid checkpoints set up at the behest of the Government affect most in recent weeks? As other members will verify, ordinary decent people travelling to work or coming home from work in the evening were held up for an hour and a half. Those are not the people who should have been targeted. I am afraid the same thing will happen if there is a no-deal Brexit. Let us all hope that a deal will be done this evening or tomorrow. That is important for Ireland, Britain and Europe. The British are exporting many goods into this country and I hope we will be ready to take a strong stand against them as well.