Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Kelly for his presentation. I echo the concerns of Senator O’Reilly and Mr. Kelly around the issue of flour. In the context of our own report, this is a serious issue. Stafford Bakeries, based in Wexford, is one of the largest bread manufacturers in the south east and, indeed, in the country, and it has raised this as a concern with me. If we allow a situation where bread and bread product prices increase by the order of 9%, as Mr. Kelly suggested, that has a knock-on inflationary impact, given the significant role that bread and bread products play in the basket of goods. I ask that we look at this. I would stress that, even in the short term, we try to get clarity around that derogation and that, as a committee, we would push for that.

Related to that, in the long run, given what is likely to happen, or if worst-case scenario difficulties were to happen in terms of supply from Britain, does Mr. Kelly think there is the possibility of the establishment of an industrial mill or that, in other words, we could try to produce flour domestically? Would that be economically viable?

Mr. Kelly mentioned market diversification, export supports and the export credit guarantee scheme. He might briefly outline how he would envisage they might operate.