Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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242. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he or his officials have met with the IFA or exporters associations to discuss the serious concerns they have regarding Brexit. [25946/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Close consultations in relation to the potential impact of the UK decision to leave the EU have been ongoing with all of the relevant stakeholders - including the IFA and other farming organisations as well as industry stakeholders - since early 2016, considerably in advance of the UK referendum which gave rise to the decision to leave the EU.

I and my officials have consulted extensively with representative organisations, businesses and other stakeholders, both formally through mechanisms such as my Department's Stakeholder Consultative Committee (which met most recently on 11 April 2017) and the series of agrifood sectoral dialogues that I have hosted under the All-Island Civic Dialogue process (most recently on 3 May 2017), and also informally through ongoing and regular bilateral contacts.

We will continue to meet representative bodies in these and other fora in order to exchange views, to monitor developments and to discuss appropriate responses as the negotiations progress.