Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Brexit is the challenge of our time and, to be honest, that kind of shrill analysis does no justice to the scale of the challenge we face. I have operated an open door in the context of Brexit and the Deputy has not walked through it with any proposals or submissions on the issue of Brexit. His party spoke at length about the requirement for a Brexit Minister, but it was not until the party entered into the transfer market in early 2017 that it actually got around to appointing a specific spokesperson on Brexit and, to be honest with Deputy McConalogue, we have been particularly underwhelmed by any utterances from that spokesperson, Deputy McConalogue or Fianna Fáil on the matter generally. I extend again an invitation for any submissions or proposals - concrete suggestions.

Regarding the Deputy's critique of Bord Bia, the agency got sanction for 20 staff in 2016, four of whom remain to be appointed. Its resources were increased in the latter half of 2016, in an immediate response to Brexit, by €1.6 million. It received an additional €2 million this year. We do not have endless resources. We need to be extremely clever in using resources.

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