Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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1394. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will establish an enterprise stabilisation fund to assist sectors that face particular difficulties due to the reduction in the value of sterling since mid-2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38677/17]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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1409. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the measures he plans to implement to assist the beef sector due to difficulties that have arisen from the decline in the value of sterling; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38910/17]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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1410. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the measures he plans to implement to assist the mushroom sector due to difficulties that have arisen from the decline in the value of sterling; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38911/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1394, 1409 and 1410 together.

I fully recognise the enormous challenges Brexit poses for the agri-food and fisheries sectors, and particularly for the beef and mushroom sectors, both of which, given their reliance on the UK market for exports, are experiencing severe difficulties on foot of the fall in the value of sterling against the euro. 

The Government's response to Brexit is being co-ordinated across a range of Departments. In so far as the agri food sector is concerned, I and my Department, with the support of the Government, have been actively engaged in developing responses that will help to ameliorate this impact, for example through the new €150 million loan fund introduced as part of a package of measures announced in Budget 2017. We are also actively considering further measures that may need to be deployed over the medium- to longer-term.

However, the scale of the difficulties being created by the current period of volatility requires that other approaches be considered. Accordingly, I have been considering the need for specific EU support, and have been engaging with Commissioner Hogan and other Member States in this regard, most recently at last week's Informal Council in Estonia.

I intend to pursue the matter further by raising it at next month's AgriFish Council and by asking my colleagues to consider a range of measures that will help the Irish agri-food sector to deal with these difficulties.