Marian Harkin warns on Mercosur, exports and border risks

I think it was one of my first interventions in the Dáil that I congratulated Minister Coveney, his department and the government for their good work on Brexit. And can I say that as an MEP I was proud at how well we were represented in the ongoing negotiations and deliberations. And you too, Minister, you made a positive contribution to that. So I just want to thank you for it. Now I have listened to the debate in my office and while some of the issues I raised have already been raised, I'll try to ask different questions, just three. First of all, Mercosur was already mentioned and its impact on the Irish beef industry. And apart from the significant and ongoing rise in emissions as more and more of the Amazon is felled and burned, are the Council taking the impact of Brexit with the possibility of a limited FTA or perhaps even tariffs on Irish beef? Are they taking that into consideration when they are reviewing Mercosur? And Michael Healy Ray spoke earlier about live exports and I would like to add my voice to what he said and I was pleased with your response. Now my second question is, we export both east-west to the UK and north-south. If we take an item A that is exported to Liverpool and the same item is exported to Belfast and perhaps a component of that item or the item itself may then be exported to the UK at some point. I just want to ask you Minister, how are those items treated and what is the difference in exporting requirements, if I am making myself clear? And my third question is a regional one and the impact of Brexit. And today I quoted to the Taoiseach a recent report from the three regional assemblies which showed that the north-west and the border regions had the greatest exposure to significant economic disruption because of COVID-19. So we now have Brexit coming down the track and what I would really strongly ask you Minister, is that for businesses and sectors like food production and agriculture, we need to keep in mind first of all the economic gap that is there between the regions to begin with, the exacerbation of that by the impact of COVID-19 as referenced by this report from the three regional assemblies, and the unique impact of Brexit on the border regions and the north-west. So keeping those three things in mind, what I am asking is that the government ensures it puts the necessary protections in place for the sectors that will be worst affected in the border and the north-west region. Thank you. Thank you Deputy. Firstly just to reaffirm our commitment to trying to support business across the island and making sure that we mitigate and minimise the impacts of Brexit but also COVID because obviously these are all coming at a very unopportune time. We have also, you know, we have always tried to engage with the representative groups of the various different sectors most impacted in Northern Ireland when it came to our preparedness, but obviously there is a limit to what we can do in Northern Ireland and that is why it is so important the Executive is up and running, the New Decade New Approach document which has been agreed I think is extremely important in setting out shared goals and objectives for the entire region, not just related to Brexit but in terms of developing infrastructure and developing relations on this island. So we are absolutely committed to trying to work with, and we are working with our colleagues in the north, to try and mitigate any of the impacts not just on the border communities but on the island of Ireland as a whole. In terms of the scenario that you painted, I suppose there is a lot of different movements there, and obviously any movements between the UK and Northern Ireland is a matter for the UK Government, depending on what the outcome of the overall agreement between the UK and the EU is, then obviously that will have an implication on any movements between Ireland and the UK. So I suppose it all very much depends on what happens, whether there is tariffs. Of course we know that the UK are leaving the customs union, so there will obviously be changes there, and that is why we have tried to emphasise to business that irrespective of what outcome there is, there is going to be changes, and that is why the business needs to be prepared and needs to be ready. In terms of Mercosur, again we are going through a process, each individual Member State is going through a process of looking at how it could potentially impact, not just on the agricultural sector but many other sectors, and we will of course take into account Covid and obviously Brexit as part of that overall deliberation, but that is obviously something that will be ongoing I think for some time. Thank you. Thank you.