Mr. Joe Ryan:

I will make a few points because a number of Deputies and Senators have raised the issues of market access and why, in the two years since the Brexit referendum, more has not been done in terms of securing international market access. In the context of Brexit, we have to maintain access into and meet the requirements of existing markets and we have to develop new international markets at the same time. International market access is painfully slow. It is dealt with by competent authorities here dealing with the competent authorities in other countries, namely, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine dealing with similar authorities in the international arena. The competent authority is responsible for trade missions, veterinary protocols, certificates, sampling protocols, multiple plant inspections, reports on those inspections, follow-up actions and so on. We work closely with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in that regard. Securing access to a third-country market is also down to the willingness and eagerness on the side of that market to facilitate such access because many of them are inundated with other similar access requests.

International market access is key. It is important in finding outlets for various cuts from the carcase and maximising the returns from the carcase. The Deputy mentioned a particular market, and I will come back to him on that.

When we consider our priorities for the beef sector, there is much talk about China. As of today, we have seven plants approved for China. The access that we have for getting beef into China is relatively limited and issues were raised earlier about the requirement for exported animals to be under 30 months. That is a requirement set down by the Chinese. We are talking about frozen and boneless beef and there is a raft of technical requirements that the product must meet, therefore limiting the amount of animals that are ultimately eligible and therefore one of the key priorities is to secure more plant access to the Chinese market. A number of applications are awaiting decision by the Chinese authorities. Let us be clear that the decision is with them and the delay is for no lack of effort on anyone's side over here.

South Korea is another market of interest. The process in that regard is very slow and has probably been ongoing for eight or ten years. We are now at the sixth stage of an eight-stage process. The next stage will involve a parliamentary process in which the South Koreans will debate whether Irish beef should have access to their market. We all know how long parliamentary processes can take.

Vietnam is a key, huge market. It has good potential but, again, progress is very slow. Thailand, Malaysia and Japan are of interest. Japan was mentioned earlier and we have access to it but, like other markets, there are restrictions. There is an under 13 months restriction or limit for Japan at the moment and that is something we are working on closely with the Department. The Japanese authorities were here and we hope to make progress on the age limit.

The other market the Chairman asked about was Iran and technically we do have access to the Iranian market but there are some challenges around the banking of transactions due to sanctions imposed by other countries and there are also technical aspects and challenges about the certificates. The requirement that animals are under 13 months is one of those, and there are others. We are working with the Commission on that because it was a Commission agreed certificate. We hope to address some of those issues to make that market more feasible.

As well as new international markets, there is a list of markets to which we have access but in respect of the potential is limited due to certain restrictions and technical aspects. That is a work in progress. I re-emphasise that access into these international markets is not just a case of deciding to send product into the market tomorrow. It is dealt with at competent authority level and is dependent on the engagement of authorities on the far side.