Mr. Philip Carroll:

From our perspective as an industry operating in the commercial sector, we see the funding support coming through BAR as a matter for the Department. However, we recognise the challenges the sector is facing. We support any of those measures the sector requires, particularly around existing sheep schemes and the associated funding.

We support the primary sector in accessing those funds, quite specifically, Brexit adjustment reserve, BAR, funding because it is not national funding. It is part of an EU-wide scheme and is directly associated with the Brexit situation. The only problem with that is it does not have durability, as such, because of the fact it will run out of time towards the end of this year. Maybe some sort of combination model is required where BAR, to the extent that it can be made available, would be made available, but it might require some other accompanying measures as well.