Fianna Fáil's agriculture spokesperson Charlie McConalgoue has slammed the Government for failing to deliver on the 700 customs officials and 300 veterinary, sanitary and phytosanitary inspectors promised by An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar last July in preparation for Brexit.

"A couple of months later, Minister [for Agriculture Michael] Creed downgraded the 300 agricultural and veterinary inspectors to 71. But as of today there's no clear answer from the Minister for Agriculture as to how many will be in place at the end of March," he told reporters in Leinster House thion Tuesday.

Deputy McConalogue cited concerns raised by the Veterinary Officers Asociation, which highlighted disagreement with the Department on the recruitment process and its lack of progress.

"There is no excuse why the Government aren't actually stepping up to the mark and putting that contingency in place. If you look for example at the Netherlands, they have 1,000 customs officers extra, hired and ready to go since last summer."

Unacceptable

Fianna Fáil's Brexit spokesperson Lisa Chambers TD said that it was "unacceptable" that the Government has not yet introduced legislation to get Ireland ready for a potential no-deal Brexit on 29 March.

"Germany, France, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic to name but a few have already passed their Brexit emergency legislation. We haven't even seen heads of bills at this point," she said.

Deputy Chambers also warned that their was no guarantee a potential UK request to extend the Brexit deadline past 29 March would be granted and called on the Irish Government to lobby other EU member states to accept any such request.

Government time

Asked by independent Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae later on to be "the Taoiseach for our farming community," Leo Varadkar replied that Brexit now takes up 30% to 40% of Government time.

"At the forefront of my mind and at the forefront of the mind of this Government are our farmers and our fishermen and our agri food industry, because those are the industries that are most likely to be adversely affected by Brexit," he said.

"That's why we're working so hard to secure a deal that means there will be no tariffs or quotas imposed on our farming exports and the whole industry can be assured that the Government has their back in that regard."

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