As a result of yesterday’s summit by EU leaders in Brussels, we are now certain that we are no longer just one week away from Brexit.

It will be at least three weeks, with the departure date pushed back until 12 April at the earliest.

If UK prime minister Theresa May manages to convince parliament to approve the withdrawal agreement at the third attempt, then the delay for the UK departure will be deferred until 22 May to enable administrative processes to be completed.

The UK had requested a 30 June departure, but accepted the EU proposals when their request was declined.

What this means

The result of yesterday’s council vote creates a breathing space of two weeks, but alters nothing else.

All the problems that existed before continue, in particular the UK deciding what exactly it wants, as opposed to what it doesn’t want.

The position before yesterday - that is without parliament voting in favour of the withdrawal agreement - the default setting remains the UK leaving the EU without any deal and WTO terms for trade on 12 April instead of 29 March, as originally was planned.

Uncertainty continues

All this simply means the uncertainty for Irish farmers continues, with the situation for beef finishers becoming critical, as there is no sign of the usual market recovery at this time of year.

While the uncertainty remains, farmers and indeed traders continue to operate their businesses without any certainty.