Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and the representatives from the Department. My first question is on mixed milk and will follow on from something that has been put on the agenda, including by the last line of the Department's document on market tools. How would that issue affect all Irish products? If Irish milk products need to go into private storage or intervention, how will the percentage of southern product in mixed milk products be ascertained? How will the conundrum be solved? This issue needs to be built into the new Common Agricultural Policy, CAP. There must be some way of getting recognition for Northern Ireland milk. By virtue of the facts already stated, this sector is probably the one that will need the most EU support and initially be affected most by Brexit. It is vital that we have access to the market tools.

The Minister's presentation addressed a number of other issues. Regarding the new SPS export health certificates, EHCs, and custom control requirements when importing from and exporting to the UK, has the Department done any speculative work on how those systems will function when at full capacity? While I do not know whether it is possible to say that there is anything positive in Covid, it has given time for teething issues to be highlighted and has limited the quantities of imports and exports in January and now into February. This reduced market has given our hauliers, exporters and importers a chance to come to terms with the new rules and regulations. If and when we return to full capacity or as close to what used to be the normal trade flow, how will we handle the situation? Have those tests been conducted and are contingency plans in place?

While I welcome the Brexit adjustment reserve, I will add the caveat that it needs to be spent wisely. Where we can overcome problems diplomatically, we do not need to throw that money at them in the hope of finding a solution. I will cite the example of the beef exceptional aid measure, BEAM, scheme. While I welcome the Minister's application for an extension of the reference area for the nitrates reduction under the scheme, I would not like to see any of the Brexit adjustment reserve being used with conditions placed on it in the same way they were placed on the scheme to reduced nitrates or have any other effect than what it says on the tin, that is, an adjusted reserve and a replacement of lost earnings due to Brexit.

That is vitally important. Will the Minister elaborate on or indicate how he think the events of the weekend can affect this and what he thinks will be the outcome of the Article 16 fiasco? It seems to have had a knock-on effect on the dock workers in the North. Will there be an immediate resolution to this problem? Agriculture and agrifood exports and imports to and from the UK will be hit most by this. The Minister's presentation may have been penned before much of what happened in the past 24 hours and I would like to hear more on the matter.