Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We could do with half an hour for this debate because there is so much to cover in it. To respond first to the Deputy's last point, we have seen exponential growth in sailings and movement of Irish goods directly to mainland Europe, specifically France, because of the challenges with the land bridge, but the land bridge is still important. That is an example of everything we are doing in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, which aims to recognise that the UK is still a very important market for us. Its presence is hugely important to us and provides that competition, but we also need to diversify, to become more flexible and to work on other markets because there is now a medium-term threat from Brexit as the UK opens up more trade deals. That is where the focus needs to be from a trade perspective. That is why we have continued to invest even more money in Bord Bia, with a €4 million increase in its budget for last year and a further slight increase for this year.

Work is ongoing on the Brexit adjustment reserve and our asks from that. The Minister, Deputy McConalogue, the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, and I will continue to keep a close focus on that to make sure it is targeted. There is also the Brexit loan adjustment scheme, on which I will maybe go into more detail later.

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