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

The Brexit adjustment reserve is where the ITBA has directed its ask and that is where the potential lies. You have to have that demonstrable impact from Brexit and there is no doubt in my mind that this industry has been impacted by that. The Senator spoke about successful schemes and so on. I pointed to the horse and greyhound racing fund earlier as a good indication of the Government's support. The equine support measures coming in under the targeted agriculture modernisation schemes, TAMS, is also something I have advocated very strongly for. It will come in during the new year and will have a huge impact, including in farm safety which is my own area of responsibility. It will make a really significant difference for breeders to be able to invest in their holdings and in safety requirements. We also have the continued support of the National Stud in Kildare and look forward to working with it in its ambitious plans. Brexit threw up issues around VAT which we managed to address around race horses. We have more work to do to support breeders around VAT too. There are a number of different measures by which the Government and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine are supporting the industry across a host of those areas and we will continue to work very closely with all the organisations including ITBA and HRI and the rest of the industry to make sure we support it to continue to provide the jobs and the economic activity so crucial to rural Ireland.