Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

They continue to be ongoing and we continue to raise issues at European level. The freer the interaction is between this island and our neighbouring island, the better it will be across all ranges of goods, including all food types. There is a challenge in that Britain is now a third country and, therefore, third-country rules apply. That means that seed potatoes, many of which had previously come from Scotland, cannot come in from now on. The EU is willing to facilitate that on the basis of veterinary alignment between Britain and the EU, but the British Government has not indicated its willingness to go down that route so there has not been progress. We will continue that conversation because we want as much engagement and the smallest number of barriers between Ireland and Britain as possible, but we have to work on the basis that there is no prospect of the situation changing in the short term. We have to turn that challenge into an opportunity to reignite our seed potato sector and supply seed potatoes nationally as opposed to from imports. We have the capacity in this country to grow seed potatoes in the same way that Scotland does.

I have had a number of meetings with members of the potato industry and the IFA national potato committee. I have made it clear and emphasised to them that it is very important that this is industry led. It is our industry nationally that is looking for seed potatoes and it is important they give confidence to those who are considering becoming seed potato growers that they will buy that seed potato from them, if they grow it, because it is a significant step for somebody to get into that industry. We need to see those relationships. We also need ware potato growers to build relationships with existing seed potato growers, in addition to new ones, to give certainty that if they grow seed potatoes this year, the growers will provide the market for them, depending on quality obviously. As Minister, I will certainly be doing all I can to support seed growers and ware growers to build that relationship through investment in the sector, for example, through the targeted agricultural modernisation scheme.

I was in the national seed potato base for the country, Tops farm in Raphoe, on Monday and met the team there, which is led by Gerry Doherty. I had a discussion with them about the work they are doing in providing seed potato and the genetics for it. I also opened a new glasshouse, which the Department invested in last year, that will expand its capacity to grow seed potato. There is an exciting opportunity to reignite this industry. Those working at Tops farm showed me documents going back to the 1970s and 1980s. My father was in the book as being a seed potato grower in the 1970s. The vast majority of farmers in Donegal then were growing an acre or a hectare of seed potatoes. Some 3,000 acres of seed potatoes were grown in the county in the late 1970s, while it is something like 200 ha or 300 ha now. In counties in the northern part of the country, in particular, there is a real opportunity to service that industry nationally and to add value. It is something we have to work to try to develop. I will certainly do all I can to push that.