Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As a former Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, I know - and the current Minister, Deputy Creed, knows - how sensitive the agriculture and fishing industries would be to a bad Brexit. We need to protect and shelter the sector in a worst case scenario, and we will. That will not be easy. It will be challenging but we will work with farming and fishing representative bodies to plan in as complete a way as we can for all eventualities and we will work with the Commission on that as well.

Finally, I have positive news. There has been confirmation that PEACE funding will continue up until the end of this funding cycle and it will also be prioritised in the next funding cycle post 2020 because the European Union wants to be very clear to people in Northern Ireland that it wants to continue to support - financially and in a very real way - the peace process and good community relations.

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