“That’s the message we have to get across, not only to the politicians here but across Europe and also the farm organisations, that if agriculture is effected in Ireland, it will have a knock-on effect on other countries.

If we are not selling our 270,000t of beef on to the UK market, obviously we are going to look to Europe. That’s going to have a negative effect on the French, the Germans and the Danish,” Healy said.

The IFA president added that the organisation will always fight unapologetically for the benefit of Irish farmers and at the moment Brexit is potentially the greatest threat to Irish farming in a lifetime.

There are over 100,000 farmers in Ireland and Healy said that many of them are struggling as it is: ”A bad outcome to Brexit would finish a lot of those farmers. We have to ensure that the Taoiseach, the minister, politicians here and in Brussels keep agriculture to the top of the Brexit negotiations,” Healy concluded.

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