Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

Certainly. In the context of Brexit there were a number of false starts but, equally, some of them had a real impact on the marketplace in some of our sectors. In 2019, for example, we introduced a scheme for the support of the beef sector, on the basis of an economic analysis of the potential damage to the beef sector, which was co-funded by the European Union.

In the context of fisheries, right through the negotiations on Brexit the Department has been involved in providing its advice to those in government who were involved in the dealings with Michel Barnier and his team. The negotiations on Brexit were conducted by the Commission on behalf of member states with the UK but I can certainly say that Ireland's interests were well known to all of the participants in that and that was in part as a result of the work done by this Department.