Despite the agri-food sector being allocated €238m in the budget from the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR), it appears farming is not in fact in scope for most of these funds.
The Minister for Agriculture, in an interview with Irish Farmers Journal, clarified that a significant majority of this funding would go the fisheries sector.
Farmers are to receive just €28m for the new beef scheme that is to replace the Beef Environmental Efficiency Payment, which was Exchequer-funded.
Some €278m has already been allocated to the Department of Agriculture in respect of Brexit-related support schemes.
Irish Farmers Journal analysis indicates that two-thirds of this funding was directed to fisheries and coastal communities. Some €70m has been earmarked for a Capital Investment Scheme for the processing and marketing of agricultural produce to support the meat and dairy sectors in diversifying markets.
Horticulture received just over €3m in support for seed potatoes and mushroom promotion in the UK.
Fishing sector prioritised
The fishing sector, in particular prawns and mackerel, more than merit BAR funding support.
The impact of Brexit on these fisheries was swift with €20m eliminated from annual mackerel and prawn quotas in 2021. This increases in a phased manner to €43m per annum by 2026.
In a farming context, it would be akin to losing farmland which cannot be replaced. In that regard, few would argue with the need for a robust package of support.
The minister responded with equally swift action and established the Seafood Taskforce in March 2021.
Charged with recommending measures to mitigate the impacts of Brexit on fisheries and coastal communities, it proposed a range of schemes and funding recommendations totalling €423m.
A close examination of funding announcements under the €35m Brexit investment in Public Marine Infrastructure identifies many projects, which no doubt merit investment, but which could very loosely, if at all, claim a Brexit impact.
No doubt this is made possible as the BAR regulations specify measures to support regional and local communities including small-scale coastal fisheries dependent on fishing activities that are impacted.
A similar approach to that of fisheries would have benefited farming which has struggled to attract meaningful BAR funding.
The real impact of Brexit for the beef sector will only materialise as product starts to flow from UK trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand next year. That the meat and dairy processing sector have been prioritised for BAR funding suggests there is a recognition of the challenges ahead.
So far, Ireland has struggled to develop alternative markets outside of the EU to compensate for future losses. The issue for beef farmers in particular, whose reliance on the UK market has grown, is that an appropriate post-Brexit risk analysis has not been conducted and mitigants are not planned.
It is unfortunate that a Brexit specific taskforce was not established to develop a costed mitigation plan for the agri-food sector. While proposals have been put forward, the fear is that the funding, which must be disbursed in 2023, will not flow to farming in any meaningful way. Some would argue that the beef sector is already slowly restructuring in response to policy reforms that challenge its economic viability.
However, mitigating the risks and protecting jobs and local communities is surely best achieved through planned, targeted and funded restructuring. That was the purpose of the EU Brexit Adjustment Reserve after all.
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