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

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for this opportunity to address the House on what I think we all agree is the biggest challenge facing the agrifood sector in many years. The scale of the Brexit challenge is evident from our trade figures which illustrate our dependence on the UK market. According to the CSO, in 2016 we exported €4.8 billion worth of agricultural products to the UK, representing about 39% of our total agrifood exports. Our imports came to €3.7 billion which represented 47% of our total agrifood imports.

It is not just about the numbers, however, but also about the extensive and highly-integrated nature of the trading relationship between the UK and Ireland, and the need to protect this relationship to the maximum extent possible. Our priorities are clear - we want to ensure that we have continued unfettered access to the UK market, without tariffs, and with minimal additional customs and administrative procedures. In addition, we are asking that the UK market be kept viable for Irish producers by minimising the risk from UK trade agreements with third countries after Brexit.

In the short-term, our most immediate concerns have centred on the significant drop in the value of sterling against the euro. I have attempted to address these challenges primarily through the measures announced in budget 2017. These include further additional funding for Bord Bia, which now stands at €3.6 million since the decision of the UK to leave the EU, a new €150 million low-cost loan scheme, additional agri-taxation measures, and increased funding under the rural development programme and seafood development programme.

The more medium to long-term impacts of Brexit include the potential disruption that will arise from new trading arrangements and possible tariffs, changes to regulations and standards, Border controls and certification, and the related areas of veterinary and health certification. My Department and its agencies were giving careful consideration to these potential impacts, even before the referendum took place last June. In order to ensure that the process works well, I have put in place a number of practical steps, including: the establishment of a Brexit response committee and a dedicated Brexit unit in my Department; the creation of a stakeholder consultative committee, complemented by frequent contact with representative organisations and companies on an ongoing basis; close consultation with Bord Bia, Bord lascaigh Mhara and Enterprise Ireland; and the addition of Brexit as a standing item on the agenda of the Food Wise 2025 high-level implementation committee.

In addition to regular contacts at fora such as the Council of Ministers, I have also embarked on an extensive process of engagement with counterparts in Northern Ireland and the UK, and with other member states and EU institutions. I had meetings with my German, Dutch and Danish counterparts during the St. Patrick’s weekend, as well as with my colleagues from Estonia, Poland, Luxembourg and Austria. Most recently, I met the French Minister for Agriculture, Stéphane Le Foll. I intend to meet shortly with my Italian, Spanish and Belgian counterparts in this regard. I have also met the UK Secretary of State, Andrea Leadsom, on a number of occasions and have had a bilateral discussion with the Minister of State, George Eustice, in Luxembourg recently. I have also been in regular contact with Commissioner Hogan, and my officials have taken part in meetings with the Commission and the Barnier task force, most recently in March.

One of the biggest challenges ahead for us will be to reduce our dependence on the UK market. We have been putting considerable effort in recent years into opening new markets and building on existing potential. This work becomes all the more pressing in the light of Brexit. The Minister of State, Deputy Doyle, and I led successful trade missions to China, Singapore, Vietnam and South Korea in September, and to North Africa in November. I also led a successful mission to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates a few weeks ago. I am currently considering further potential destinations for later in 2017.

Notwithstanding all of the work done to date, and noting the important step taken recently in the form of the UK's article 50 notification, we are still at an early stage in the Brexit process. There are likely to be many twists and turns ahead but I will continue to work to achieve the best possible outcome for Ireland's agrifood and fisheries sectors.

One of the particular challenges, which was alluded to by previous speakers, relates to the trading relationship between the Republic and Northern Ireland. Nowhere else is the all-island nature of the agricultural economy more clearly manifested. Take the following statistics for example. Some 30% of the milk pool from Northern Ireland is processed in the Republic, particularly in dairy processing plants along the Border such as Lakelands and LacPatrick. Strathroy Dairy in County Tyrone in Northern Ireland collects a significant milk pool in the Republic, processes it is Strathroy and redistributes it in the liquid milk market all over the Republic. In 2015, 55,000 cattle were exported from the Republic to Northern Ireland. Approximately 400,000 sheep come South for slaughter annually. Pigs cross the Border in both directions on their way to slaughter plants.

There is clearly a highly-integrated all-island agrifood economy. I have had very significant engagement with various parties in Northern Ireland in that context. Indeed, in the sectoral dialogues which my Department organised, there was significant participation from the agrifood economy in Northern Ireland. Many of those participants would have been of the view that the United Kingdom should have remained within the European Union, but are now very anxious to deal with the reality with which they are confronted and to engage with our Government in an effort to ensure that the highly-integrated nature of that agrifood economy is reflected in the negotiations.

It is particularly disappointing that there is currently no Executive in Northern Ireland with which to engage. I had very useful engagement on up to a dozen occasions with Michelle McIlveen, the DUP Minister for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, in which we addressed, in considerable detail, some of the issues to which I have already alluded. There is ongoing engagement at a technical level between officials in my Department and their counterparts in Northern Ireland, but ever since the collapse of the Executive in Northern Ireland there has been a vacuum in that area and the best interests of the entire island are done a disservice as long as that continues.

My colleague, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Flanagan, is in Belfast and I know there are efforts under way to establish an Executive. I sincerely hope that all parties recognise, particularly in the context of Brexit, the bigger picture of the serious disservice being done, not just to the citizens of Northern Ireland but to the entire island and the Brexit endeavour by not having an Executive. Not having an Executive means, from a Dublin perspective, not having that critical voice with which to engage. It also means not having that critical voice whispering in the ear of the UK Government and bringing the concerns of the people of Northern Ireland to its attention, as the Executive's Welsh and Scottish counterparts do in specifically dedicated fora for the regional assemblies.

In concluding my remarks I urge all of those participants, representatives of the political parties and those of no political persuasion, to redouble their efforts as we approach Good Friday. It would be a fitting occasion on which to re-establish an Executive in Northern Ireland. It is a significant voice, which is presently absent from the stage, that is crucial to ensuring that the voice of Northern Ireland is heard loud and clear, particularly with regard to Border areas where there is a highly-integrated agrifood economy. It must be heard in Dublin, and we have had considerable and productive engagement with the Executive up to the point of its collapse, but it must also be heard in London because we need as many friends in court as possible in the UK.

I have had engagement with the food and drinks industry in the UK and with farming organisations in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland and we share common ground in respect of Brexit. Although the UK is on the other side of the negotiating table as we are one of the 27 remaining member states, where we have common ground with UK interests it is important that we engage with all those friends in court, so that areas of common ground are clearly expressed in the corridors of power, not just in Dublin, but in Belfast, London and Brussels. Unfortunately, the lack of an Executive in Northern Ireland is a very significant impediment to progressing the all-island case in terms of the agrifood economy. I hope that all parties in the Assembly in Northern Ireland will redouble their efforts in that regard in the coming days.

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