Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests back to the committee. The mechanism the Department and the Minister in particular have been using is becoming increasingly frustrating. It is a long-standing practice but it has become particularly prevalent where news of a headline scheme is leaked and we are all reading through different newspapers and columns to try to get the pertinent information. Generally speaking, the details of the scheme are then published when all the staff at the agriculture newspapers have gone to bed and there is little scope for questions to be put. In many cases, it is several weeks before the full details emerge, which is not good enough, especially when we are dealing with sectors in crisis, as we are with respect to the pig sector.

I would like to get as much information as the IFA has on how the new package will work from its understanding. One of the key planks of the alternative package that the IFA has put forward was €50 million in loan funding, which I would have thought would be the easiest element for Government to deliver. Yet, it appears there is no reference to that in the Government announcement. Perhaps Mr. Cullinan could report on his engagements with the Minister and Department officials on why there is resistance to that mechanism whereby Government has access to relatively cheap funding. The scheme that was outlined ensure that would be repaid to the taxpayer. As a result, it is hard to see why there would be resistance. Maybe there are practical or technical issues that have been brought to Mr. Cullinan’s attention that would ensure that is the case.

The pig sector is probably the agricultural sector that is most clearly and evidently affected by Brexit.

To date, there has been no move on the Brexit adjustment reserve being used to provide a package. None of the €1 billion Brexit adjustment reserve that we all fought for and welcomed has yet reached farmers, which is scandalous. This is the easiest route to address that. In their negotiations with the Department, have the witnesses seen a mechanism or willingness to use the Brexit adjustment reserve?

We learned about 5% of pig farmers going out of business. Mr. Cullinan referred to 7%, which suggests that more are leaving the sector daily. Will the witnesses outline the real impact on the domestic economy if that trend continues?

The Minister published heads of a paper about a new office for transparency. It is the new name for the food ombudsman, which is the name used instead of the term "meat regulator". Do the witnesses believe that office will be able to assist sectors such as this in the event of future crises?