Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister was right to say I was not suggesting that we should displace our total Great Britain market. It is an important market and we should try to continue to develop it. In the event of difficulties, having seen recently when difficulties arose and having seen the consequences of a price drop, we need to have something to replace that market in the event that situations develop in future. Hopefully we will not have a catastrophic situation whereby there will be a hard Brexit, which obviously would be difficult.

It is difficult when we have all our eggs in the one basket. Traditionally, we have seen that when everything was in the one basket, there was a difficulty because we did not have an alternative. It is important that we develop these alternatives as quickly as possible. That will create greater competition in the market. Competition is the life of trade in any business. The more markets we have, the better the competition. What can we do to speed up the veterinary process, which is very important, to make sure these markets are ready when we have the supply of beef, for example, at its prime level?

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