Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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350. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the degree to which he remains satisfied that the agri-food business on the island of Ireland can prosper and grow notwithstanding the impact of Brexit; if he has identified particular issues for early attention and resolution; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7377/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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It has always been clear that Brexit had the potential to be profoundly disruptive, particularly for agrifood businesses on the island of Ireland. The Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland is designed to minimise that disruption and reduce the worst of the impact of Brexit and I am satisfied that, with the Protocol in place, Irish agrifood businesses can continue to benefit from the free movement of goods across the island of Ireland.

There are some issues that have emerged which require attention and further consideration. Certain rules of origin issues can arise for agri-food goods that use processing facilities in Northern Ireland, or source their inputs from Northern Ireland. This can be particularly difficult for certain dairy and spirit drink products which may now be unable to take advantage of the preferential tariff rate in the EU’s existing Free Trade Agreements. This is one of the unavoidable consequences of the UK leaving the EU. There may be more scope to address this issue in future EU FTA negotiations with other countries, but the Commission has been clear that it will not renegotiate all of the EU's FTAs to account for this issue.

The EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, together with the Withdrawal Agreement - including the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland - establishes the best possible arrangements, in this new post-Brexit context, to allow agrifood businesses on the island of Ireland to grow and prosper.

The focus now must be on the full implementation of all of these agreements, as well as on highlighting the opportunities that exist for agrifood businesses across the island of Ireland under the Protocol, with continued full and unchanged access to the EU Single Market of 450 million people.