Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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434. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the timeline and deadlines agreed for recruitment of veterinary inspectors in the event of a no-deal hard Brexit scenario by 29 March 2019; the amount of funds ring-fenced to ensure recruitment targets are met; if the advertising and promotion of these new places are planned; the budget for this; the budget allocated for the training of these new inspectors for third country trading status with the UK; and if plans for the hiring of new inspectors have been sufficiently flexible to cater for soft and no-deal scenarios. [53630/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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My Department is working closely with colleagues across the Public Sector as part of the whole of Government approach to preparations for Brexit.

From an agri-food perspective, whether in the absence of any agreement between the EU and the UK, or in the case of an agreed future trading relationship, live animals, plants, food of animal and non-animal origin, food contact materials, composite and plant products will be subject to the same import controls as currently apply to clearance of such products from non-EU/Third countries.

My Department is currently engaged in an on-going exercise to identify the resources and processes required to meet our obligations arising from Brexit.

Additional resources will be focused on facilitating both Brexit preparation and key initial staffing requirements regarding implementation of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) checks at point of import (hereinafter called "import controls").

A number of veterinary and plant health experts and Portal Inspectors are already deployed at points of entry carrying out import controls on agri-food products.

My Department will continuously monitor this continuously evolving situation to assess resource requirements as the negotiations progress and as the position becomes clearer.