Ms Mairead McGuinness:

I thank the Senator for the questions. We have not heard details about the Australia deal. It is very much a broad announcement, which, if it has not been made already, will say that they are going to reach a trade agreement. Of course, the UK is free to do that. When it comes to the detail, farmers in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland are already very concerned, especially beef farmers, because if there is an increased quantity of beef coming from Australia, it will displace existing suppliers, including beef farmers on the island on Ireland. That will impact price. There are genuine concerns but let us wait until we see the detail of those trade agreements. It does seem a long way to bring product, but that is a separate issue.

On the rules of origin, when I was still a member of the European Parliament and, indeed, in the past five years, I had much representation from the dairy sector, which I am familiar with, and the alcohol sector about this issue. To be very clear, the rules of origin exist and are as they are. Brexit is the problem. Brexit has caused so much disruption, including to this all-island dairy market, which has developed over time because Northern Ireland does not have sufficient processing capacity. My late father supplied milk that produced Bailey's, so I have a personal interest in this and a real concern about the disruption to supply chains. This is an issue I know there is a lot representation on. I still say the rules of origin are as they are and changing them is problematic. What might be helpful is, if we can get over these difficulties around the broader implementation, in time we could look in a measured way at these issues. I note that, yesterday, the head of the dairy sector in the North very much supported the protocol while also raising problems. Frankly, we will continue to deal with problems arising from Brexit for decades because you cannot have been together for decades, as the UK and the European Union were, and unpick without problems.

We are all very sensitive to tensions in Northern Ireland. I am originally from County Louth and live in Meath. I have had the great pleasure of saying to my children that the past was not a good place but we have come a long way, through many efforts on every side in Northern Ireland and support from the US and the European Union. We should very much be mindful of that, and we all are, while understanding that Brexit is the problem that has caused all of these tensions to arise again. Perhaps, when the withdrawal agreement was signed, the UK Government did not take the opportunity of the time between that and Brexit happening to help market players adjust. The Irish Government did. Some of the messages for Irish supply chains were extremely difficult, but at least the message was given that they needed to adjust. In the case of Northern Ireland, that did not happen and it needs to. That is why we allowed for grace periods and, to the Senator's point, why, if grace periods are to be extended, the best and only way to do that is in discussion and with an agreed solution. If something is done unilaterally, it just does not help us to move forward because it raises concerns that this may be the way the UK intends to continue. That is why there is very much a worry at EU level that should that be the path the UK chooses, we have to examine how we deal with it, stressing again that we regard the UK and the European Union as needing to be as close as they were when they were together, even with some of the differences that emerged, because we have to deal with all sorts of issues, not just the ones we talk about today but big global issues.

I apologise if I did not answer one of the Senator's points. I may have time later to refer back.