The Irish Government is fast asleep when it comes to Brexit according to Stephen Donnelly, Fianna Fáil’s Brexit spokesperson.

There have been some wins in terms of Ireland and the border, with the North recognised in the EU negotiating guidelines, he said.

“A lot of that is down to good diplomats and good diplomatic efforts, but the politicians – is anyone really driving Brexit?

“The market access unit in the Department of Agriculture I think has four people in it – four people. Bord Bia got a sanction for three and I got a parliamentary question back which pretty much says that [the Department] hasn’t hired any of them.”

Donnelly said that overall, by Fianna Fáil’s count, the State has hired less than one quarter of the already pretty small numbers that they’re throwing at it.

If you’re in beef and you’re going to the mart and you’re selling, do you know how you’re going to be affected?

“We’ve got something that is recognised as the single biggest economic threat to this country in decades. Brexit has the potential to make the banking collapse look like a picnic.”

Donnelly said there are three things that are needed to help mitigate against the Brexit fallout – a temporary relaxation of State aid rules, more access to cheap credit for farmers and an adaptation fund.

Border issues

The Wicklow TD believes that on the border issue the best solution is no border of any kind, but a border in the Irish Sea is better than a border around the six counties.

That, however, may not be better for Northern Ireland farmers, he said, because obviously there’s a lot of goods flowing north and south, but there’s a whole lot of goods flowing from the North into Britain.

Farmer engagement

Donnelly believes farmers haven’t had the engagement from the State that anyone would need to understand Brexit.

“If you’re in beef and you’re going to the mart and you’re selling, do you know how you’re going to be affected? No you don’t, and in fairness nobody does because no deal has been done yet.

“The Government is not taking Brexit seriously enough.”

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