Mr. Patrick Donohoe:

I will come in broadly on the Windsor Framework from a Lakeland Dairies point of view. The Brexit vote and its potential outcomes for trade barriers, tariffs and misalignment of regulation was more than just a sleep disrupter. It had the potential to erode our business, put farm families out of business and damage the all-island economy. The Windsor Framework is working well. Lakeland's milk tankers cross the Border up to 100,000 times per year. The same tanker that collects milk from a farm in Newry will collect milk from a farm in Glaslough, County Monaghan, bring it to our plant in County Tyrone, take product from that and bring it to another plant for further processing. The seamless criss-crossing nature of North-South trade must be protected and the Windsor Framework is working well.

There are a couple of wrinkles, as Mr. Lynam outlined earlier, three in particular: misalignment, veterinary medicines and democratic consent. There is one with the potential to be really damaging. Deputy Harkin has been a strong proponent of agriculture in the Border region and will be interested in this. It is the veterinary medicines issue. Right now veterinary products produced, certified and labelled in Britain can be used in Northern Ireland; from 1 January 2026, that will no longer be the case. That has the potential to remove between 30% and 50% of all medicines for animals, including companion animals and farm animals, from the NI market. What impact does that have? It is huge. We talk in southern Ireland of the impact the loss of the nitrates derogation would have on the agriculture industry. The lose of the veterinary medicines we have today would be like the derogation on steroids. It would have huge social, economic, animal health and, crucially, trade ramifications. Why do I say that? Some 2.5 billion litres are produced in Northern Ireland every year on farms. We are the largest purchaser of milk in Northern Ireland, about 1 billion litres. Some 30% of that milk comes south of the Border for processing. If vets in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine are not comfortable with animal medicines used on farms in Northern Ireland, even though they are the exact same but just not certified, then where does that 30% of product go?