Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The three main changes for Irish traders are: advanced notification for live animals, animal products and certain plant products; full UK customs controls; and health certification for certain animal products, plants, plant products and high-risk foods and feed of non-animal origin. The Minister for agriculture, Deputy McConalogue, stated that these rules represent a significant change for Irish agrifood exporters to Britain which is Ireland's largest export market. He urged businesses to engage with their UK customers and logistics providers to ensure they can meet these new requirements. The UK is a major market for Irish exports particularly for the agrifood sector. It accounts for 47% of Irish beef exports, worth about €1.3 billion and dairy exports valued at €1.1 billion in 2023.

From 31 January 2024, Irish traders exporting goods to Britain or via the UK to the rest of Europe will need to ensure the UK importer or agent has registered with the UK customs declaration system, has made a customs declaration and uses the UK goods vehicle management system to generate a goods movement reference before departing for ports in Ireland. For certain products they must ensure their UK importer or agent has pre-notified each consignment on the UK food and feed import system. They must ensure any products that require export health certificates have one. These new rules will not apply to goods moving between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Goods from Northern Ireland continue to have unrestricted access to Britain.

These new rules will have significant implications for the Irish agrifood sector and will lead to increased costs and delays for exporters which in turn affects competitiveness of Irish products in the UK market. It raises the question as to why the Minister for agriculture did not do more to negotiate a better deal with the UK or at EU level. This debate comes very late in the process, and it is not entirely clear what, if anything, the Minister has done to ensure that the interests of the Irish agrifood sector are adequately represented in negotiations like this.

We all recall the Brexit negotiations when the Minister for agriculture was effectively missing in action - he is also missing this evening. This resulted in the loss of €43 million in fish quota for Ireland. Every year it looks like just another repeat performance. As Deputy Mac Lochlainn mentioned, representatives of the National Inshore Fishermen’s Association appeared before the agriculture committee. They are going through a dreadful crisis at present. An estimated 75% of fish caught in Irish seas are caught by non-Irish fishing boats. This is the deal we have done with other countries after Brexit.

In other words, the Irish fishing fleet is allowed just 25% of the of the 1.2 million tonnes of fish that are caught in Irish waters each year. We need better support for our fishermen, inshore and our pelagic fishermen.

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