Ms Rowena Dwyer:

I would like to make a few points about sterling. I will try to be brief. There is no predicting what way sterling is going to go. The only thing one can say is that the risks would be on the down side. I will explain what I mean by that. The reality is that the economic impact of the Brexit vote has not yet filtered into the consumer economy in the UK. It is a case of steady as she goes. Obviously, the market has priced in a negative outlook for the UK economy. That is what we saw with the sudden depreciation. Now we seem to be sticking at a level of between 86p and 87p to the euro. Until the negotiations start and we see how they proceed, we will not know whether there will be further weakening of sterling. I have to say at this point that sterling would not be expected to bounce back positively in the short term. There is potential for sterling to weaken further over the short to medium term. It has been suggested that given our presence in and reliance on the UK market, it might be possible to go into another market at some point. Having listened to the presentation today, I would like to say two things in response to that. It took many years to build up our market in the UK.

While there are competitive forces and so on at play, I know it is a market the mushroom sector will not give up easily. Those involved will work very hard to protect it. Not only that, in common with the rest of the agricultural sector, the position that the IFA and farmers have taken following the Brexit vote is that the industry needs support to promote our produce on the United Kingdom market. That would enable us to maintain, as far as possible, the share we have with consumers, as well as provide support to look to new markets. The issue is that these things will take time.

What has been presented today is the immediate impact on an important industry in Ireland. This industry is extraordinarily innovative and has a positive future, but it is facing immediate challenges. It needs support to maintain feasibility in the short term and to allow it to work on the market share in the United Kingdom as well as on diversifying into other markets. That is not something that can be done in the immediate term.