Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Since 2016, other EU member states, including France, have been very supportive of Ireland's concerns and interests with regard to Brexit. We recall that the French Government and others at EU level were very supportive of investment in the PEACE programmes from the mid-1990s. At that time the investment was critical for economic and social progress on the northern and southern sides of the Border. Thankfully today, our Border region North and South is much less dependent on this type of financial transfer because the cross-Border economy and all-Ireland economy have developed so much since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. One of the areas of particular importance in my constituency and in neighbouring counties North of the Border is the agrifood sector.

This sector has grown on a cross-Border and all-Ireland basis. It is essential that the other member states of the European Union continue to support the Government in protecting that sector. It will be very vulnerable, should the British Government's decision to tear up parts of the protocol be implemented. It is absolutely ludicrous for the British Government to come up with the idea of two regulatory regimes for food; it is not viable. Who would certify the transfer of milk from Northern Ireland to southern processing units? A food chain, in the context of processing, cannot be broken.

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