Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Government on the first round of the negotiations. They were very iffy and up and down and I acknowledge that they worked out reasonably well after a lot of careful and arduous work and a bit of blunt talking. Now, however, we are down to the next phase, which is very serious. I welcome the funds announced by the Minister and the advertising because we need to see them being advertised. I am not saying it should be loose money but we also need to see that there is not too much bureaucracy involved in accessing funds, especially for farmers that have a lot of exports to the UK, which is most farmers. Neither can it be too bureaucratic for SMEs that export. Every day since we came back and for two or three months before we went on break we have been in here talking about delayed farm payments due to computer glitches and other issues, which is not good enough. There is a lot of uncertainty and people need the supports to be as readily available as possible. They need to be forearmed and ready for whatever negative impacts may occur.

See this speech in context