Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Ireland will receive a quarter of the Brexit adjustment reserve fund, which will amount to just over €1 billion. I will be monitoring progress and the impacts of Brexit. The academic assessments in advance of Brexit made estimates of what its cost implications and impacts on the agrifood sector would be. Various projections and assessments were made in advance. This is not a test run - we did not have a chance to have a trial run - but a real-life emerging situation and I am closely monitoring what the impact will be.

I want to ensure that the first priority in the year ahead will be to try to protect farm incomes. In doing that, I will be monitoring how Brexit evolves. Thankfully, prices and the markets for various meat sectors have held up well. We all hope that will continue but I will closely monitor the situation.

Working with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, I achieved an 11% increase in the overall agrifood budget in the most recent budget in October 2020. This will ensure we can underpin farm incomes in the time ahead by ensuring many of the schemes we had in place can continue. It will also provide some fresh and additional funding, particularly in the environmental space, for new schemes to support farm incomes and deliver public goods in the process.

As the Deputy will be aware, last week I engaged in a public consultation to get farmer feedback on a new pilot environmental scheme. I am interested in hearing the views of members on that. The significant increase in the budget of 11% was an important platform from which to try to protect farm incomes in the year ahead. I will closely monitor the sector to assess how best we can support it over the course of the year, particularly in accessing the Brexit adjustment reserve.

The Deputy also mentioned the €100 million capital investment scheme for food processing and the dairy and meat processing sectors. There are conditions attached to that. The scheme is about adding value to food processing and ensuring we diversify product. It is about trying to ensure we increase the value of our products and that farmers see a return from it. The maximum grant aid available under that €100 million capital investment fund will be 30%, so most of the investments will be less than that.

The objective is to encourage the processing sector to invest in the sector in a way that adds value and that develops and diversifies products and markets. All of that is necessary because we need a healthy and robust processing sector that maximises the value of the food that is produced on farms, that ensures incomes are as high as possible and that we get maximum value on the international markets for the food we export. I believe that addresses all the Deputy's questions.