An Tánaiste Simon Coveney has said that the Government is prepared to offer substantial amounts of money and to relax state aid rules to help the beef sector in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

He told Dáil Éireann on Thursday, in response to Fianna Fáil TD Dara Calleary, that the “Government is more than aware of the threats to the beef sector” posed by a no-deal Brexit.

“We are speaking to the European Commissioner [for Agriculture] Phil Hogan directly and he has made it very clear that the Commission will support us [to ensure] that we can support and protect a sector to ensure that it survives and comes through a Brexit transition,” he said.

This week, the Irish Farmers Journal revealed that the UK is looking at opening the floodgates to Brazilian beef in the event of a no-deal Brexit and that to keep food prices down, would offer a tariff-rate quota (TRQ) on beef imports.

This would mean that Irish beef would be competing with beef from South American countries for access to the UK market.

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