‘School children know more about Brexit than TDs'

School children have a better idea about what might happen with Brexit than some TDs.

That’s the forthright assessment of Deputy Willie Penrose, who was speaking during a Dáil debate last Wednesday on what should be done to lessen the effect that Brexit will have on the agri-food sector.

The Labour spokesperson on agriculture, Deputy Penrose said that while “our best efforts must be made to avoid a hard border at all costs, there will, nonetheless, be some ramifications and consequences for us”.

“We are all aware of the significant trade exposure of various sectors of the Irish economy in a European context and, in particular, the centrality of our trading relationship with the UK.

“Ireland’s food and live animal sectors are substantially more exposed to the UK in comparison to any other EU member state so market diversification has to be a major priority. This must include product diversification and the development of new products – which I know is part of the minister’s focus.

“It is worth reviewing the statistics to get a focused view of the exposure of the Irish economy to Brexit. Irish exports to the UK were 37% of our food exports in 2018. Statistics on the exposure of the main sectors show 51% of beef exports, 56% of pigmeat exports, 79% poultry exports, 25% of all dairy exports but 50% of our cheese exports, 62% of prepared consumer food exports and 26% of our beverage exports are to the United Kingdom.

“Copenhagen Economics estimates a 40% increase in trade costs in a free trade agreement scenario due to customs impact and regulatory divergence.

“Some 850,000 trucks travel by ferry between Ireland and the UK each year, 45% of which contain perishable food and drink.

“The majority of Ireland’s €4.5 billion food and drink exports to the EU 26 use the UK land bridge and the amounts of Irish meat exports are even larger. For fresh food and drink produce, the shortest crossing is critical.

“Ireland to Calais by the land bridge is a journey of approximately 10 and a half hours but, if one has to travel to Cherbourg, the journey is approximately 20 hours.

“Our priority must be to get an ambitious EU-UK future trade agreement which avoids tariffs, tariff rate quotas, TRQs, regulatory divergence and all that.

“We must avoid a hard border with Northern Ireland as part of the imperatives of the Good Friday Agreement. We must have state aid for stabilisation, competitiveness and some diversification to remedy what will be a serious disturbance in the economy due to the fracture in the single market and I will refer to that later. There will be an impact even if it is a soft border, particularly in exchange rates.

“Custom burdens and regulatory checks, especially with animals, must be part of any future trade agreement. There will have to be mutual recognition of standards and custom codes.

 

Collaboration

“There will have to be collaboration in relation to veterinary and phytosanitary certification,” he said.

Deputy Penrose says that Ireland must prepare for the worst but hope for the best.

“We must budget for the least worst outcome. There is a clear need for the implementation of exceptional mitigation measures because of our particular situation and unique circumstances. Tariffs are a tax on trade and commerce.

“These impositions will effectively destroy a significant volume of our agrifood exports to the UK.

“Tariffs are taxes. They are collected and go into central funds, be they exchequer or EU. Clearly they have to be made available to defray the damage to exports and job losses. That fund should be available.

“I get annoyed listening to people speak about what we can do. We can do our best.

“We have been caught up as innocent bystanders in a battle we did not cause. Very often, people state we could do this or do that. Everything is only speculation.

“The youngest child in a school has a better idea about what might happen than some of us here,” said the Ballynacargy deputy.