It has been frustrating to see just how chaotic Ireland’s reaction to Brexit has been. Despite currency volatility having wiped out margins with our largest trading partner, the Government has yet to present a plan as to how it will respond to the UK’s decision to leave the EU. While companies the length and breadth of the country struggle to survive, the need for a minister for Brexit has received more political debate over the past week than the need for intervention.

Ireland does not need a minister for Brexit; Ireland needs a Government that is prepared to go to Brussels and demand financial support for the SME sector and Irish agriculture. We should not lose sight of the fact that over 200,000 Irish jobs are dependent on a sustainable trading relationship with the UK. No other member state has such a deep relationship with the UK and therefore no other member state has been as severely affected by the Brexit-induced devaluation of sterling.

Ireland did not create the political and bureaucratic environment that saw the UK decide to leave the EU and should not be left to carry the financial burden. It is not tenable for Brussels to wash its hands of responsibility. A precedent has been set at EU level in supporting member states that find themselves taking a financial hit due to factors outside of their control. In the immediate aftermath of the Russian ban, the EU approved specific support measures for member states severely affected, like the dairy sector in Baltic countries and Finland. Along with a €40m aid package, coefficients within the €1bn dairy package were designed to ensure that support was targeted to those regions most reliant on the Russian market.

ADVERTISEMENT

Of course, prior to the introduction of the single currency, monetary compensatory amounts (MCAs) formed a central plank under CAP. They were designed to cope with this precise situation.

The immediate response to Brexit from the Irish Government and indeed those lobbying on behalf of Irish businesses and farmers should have been to demand the same assurances from Brussels as secured by the Baltic countries and Finland – assurances that the necessary mechanisms would be put in place to safeguard trade and market prices. The lack of such mechanisms has seen Irish farmers today receiving €100 per finished animal less than pre-Brexit, while at the same time the Irish mushroom sector has been in freefall.

Brexit is an unprecedented situation that no one really expected, despite what we’ve been hearing about contingency plans. It was certainly not being considered back in December 2015 when Europe agreed within the framework of WTO to voluntarily abolish export refunds. While the reintroduction of market intervention tools such as export refunds may be frowned upon at international trade level, their role in providing targeted assistance to individual member states severely affected by sudden shocks to the business landscape, such as the impact of Brexit on Ireland, should not simply be dismissed.

Last week, we heard calls from the IFA for British retailers to put up prices in the hope that these might somehow be passed back to Irish farmers. It will be interesting to see the level of response. Perhaps these same retailers would be more inclined to listen if the necessary political pressure had been applied in Brussels to implement support mechanisms that could have provided alternative markets for Irish produce – markets that with the help EU support would have created an alternative to Britain.

Meanwhile, at a wider industry level, the Government needs to secure maximum flexibility from Brussels on state aid rules. Amid the depths of the economic crisis in 2009, we saw the introduction across Europe of an enterprise stabilisation fund along with an employment subsidy scheme. At an Irish level, these national exchequer-led schemes injected almost €200m into the SME sector in 2009-2010. Clearly Ireland needs to secure the necessary flexibility for the reintroduction of similar schemes.

It is worrying that Ireland has yet to make any real case at EU level for a targeted support package in light of Brexit. Some within Brussels are starting to question why. Others are drawing the conclusion that Ireland is moving closer to London than Brussels. Such a move could have serious consequences down the line and should be considered carefully.