Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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463. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the extent to which his Department continues to monitor the effects of Brexit on Ireland’s agri-food sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7343/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Brexit has presented a range of challenges for the agri-food and fisheries sectors. While the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement maintains tariff-free trade, the fact that the United Kingdom is no longer in the EU Single Market or Customs Union creates significant extra challenges for Irish food companies trading with the UK. Despite this the value of agri-food exports to the UK has held up strong since Brexit

The impacts of this new trading environment on the Irish agri-food sector are still evolving, with new UK import control requirements for EU products being phased in during 2022, including full sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) controls on EU food imports.

My Department, in close collaboration with Irish food businesses and other stakeholders in the agri-food supply chain, is intensifying its preparations to meet these new UK requirements in order to ensure that we minimise any potential disruption to our exports to the GB market. The preparations include the recruitment of additional staff, information webinars, media information campaigns, development of new and enhanced IT systems, training programmes, certification trials and extensive local engagement between the Department's veterinary supervision teams and individual food businesses to refine the business processes that will support their exports to GB.

The UK is, and will continue to be, our biggest market for food exports, and the Government is fully committed to supporting continued growth despite the challenges which Brexit is presenting. This commitment is clearly demonstrated by the extensive preparations and investment of resources to meet the new UK SPS import requirements. The Government has also provided additional funding to Bord Bia in recent budgets to support Irish businesses to grow their exports to UK.

I will continue to monitor developments impacting on Ireland-UK supply chains and on the operation of the UK market over the coming period, and will remain ready to respond as appropriate.