Ms Julie Sinnamon:

I thank the Senator for the questions. Food is the largest sector of Irish enterprise, not just in the Border counties. It is important not just because of its contribution to exports from Irish companies but also because the bulk of the food companies are regionally located. That is particularly important in all this. Looking at the Border counties, the poultry and mushroom sectors have been particularly successful in Monaghan and the UK has been a key target market for them. The UK is not self-sufficient in products such as mushrooms. A large amount of poultry is produced for the domestic market so there are issues of import substitution. A strong focus of chicken processing has been on the local market, whereas mushrooms in particular have gone into the UK market, in which we have a strong position. Exchange rates are important in that regard and continue to drive the efficiency of the sector. That is the reason for schemes such as the Border enterprise development fund, which was about supporting companies in the Border counties to invest in efficiency programmes and capital investment to drive further cost out of the business. The whole lean processing agenda is really important at this time as those additional bureaucracy-related costs arise.

The figures I had showed a relatively low level of engagement initially. I gave a figure of 42% for engagement by August of last year. By the end of the year, that had increased significantly and stood at 80% in December.

One of the big issues, which is very understandable, is that there were so many deadlines for Brexit which came and went. A bit like the Grand Old Duke of York, we went up the hill and down again and, at the end of the day many, people, despite all of the communications, still believed that if a deal was done there would be a continuation of the existing relationship which is clearly not the case. That caused many companies not to engage, but the shift from 42% to 80% by the end of 2020 was really significant. The delay in the UK implementing many of the new regulations has pushed out the inevitable for many companies and has stopped people making decisions in terms of pushing things forward. However, the UK will continue to be a critical market for many companies, including mushroom companies in the Monaghan region. There is a high level of engagement and that has been the case from the start, particularly for the large companies that have more bandwidth. Grants such as the ready for customs grant have been well taken up and while there is still scope for more companies to draw them down, there has been strong demand to date.