 all very welcome this afternoon everybody we're very honored to have Joe Healy and Wesley Aston with us today representing both farmers associations in on the island of Ireland Joe is a married father of three he maintains a 100 acre dairy farm which is enough to keep anybody busy between the two of those he's from Galway is a reputation as a plane speaker I'm sure about to find out and a current member of the IFA his record as president of the IFA outlines a new direction of the of the Association he chief among those the groundbreaking 150 million euro loan fund which from January 2017 will give farmers access to working capital at just under 3% and this can be used to replace costly overdrafts or merchant credit so I think he has taken over the Association are very critical time under any circumstances but I think he's steady the ship as well which is to his great credit now we're also joined by Wesley Aston I was down and I was up in Belfast yesterday and meeting various individuals there and they were asking me what it's like to have a strong and stable government so we were able to advise them not sure how strong or stable our own one is so Wesley is from a small livestock farm in Market Hill County Armagh and as he was explaining he spent his childhood farming and his his young years farming and now he's he also graduated from Edinburgh University in 1989 and he started his career with the Ulster Farmers Union 1991 firstly as the policy officer of pigs poultry and fish before moving across to Dereen and heading up the Union's policy team in 1995 and more recently the Union's communications team in April of 2015 Mr. Aston officially took over as the EO of the UFU so I'll ask Joe please to give us comments thank you I'm delighted to be sharing the platform with today with Wesley Aston from the UFU and what we've always worked closely with the UFU I think the last year we've probably had good reason to meet each other a lot often or a lot more frequently than in previous times and we work very closely with the UFU and the NFU in the year since Brexit there has been a huge amount of analysis undertaken on the potential implications for the Irish economy and particularly in the farming sector of the UK leaving the EU and the the results are very stark we've often said that it's by far the greatest threat to Irish agriculture in any of our lifetimes and that's that's very very clear I think you know Ireland without a doubt is the most country in the EU that's impacted by the Brexit and within that the agri-food sector is clearly the sector that's most impacted by by the Brexit and why are we so exposed to Irish farming and the agri-food sector is particularly vulnerable for a number of reasons we export 40% of our exports from the agri-food sector into the UK and when you break that down further it's 50% of our beef and I was just saying earlier on you know when we look we export 90% of our beef and total 50% to the UK 45% to the EU but half of what goes to the EU actually travels through the UK to get on to the EU market a third of our dairy products go to the UK over half our pig meat exports and over 90% of all our mushroom exports by comparison we've seen 14% of all Irish goods to the UK and 18% of Irish services exports annually go to the UK disruptions to the UK market through the imposition of tariff barriers border checks certification requirements or any other regular changes could all render this trade uneconomic high EU tariff protection applies to products of major importance to Irish farmers such as beef dairy and lamb tariffs and imports from non EU countries are in place to protect the market for European farmers a significant reduction in import tariffs by the UK for other non EU countries such as for example the Mercasur countries of South America would fundamentally undermine the competitive positioning of Irish and EU products on to the UK market and also reduce the value of that UK market the existence of the land border between Ireland and Northern Ireland creates a serious challenge every year thousands of animals and huge volumes of agri produce cross the border to Northern Ireland for further processing as part of a highly integrated food supply chain these trading links have built up over many years and are of critical importance for farmers and processors on either side of the border Brexit presents a real risk of a hard border with customs checks and other controls as a net contributor to the EU budget the UK exit from the EU UK exit from the EU creates uncertainty on the size of the cap budgets post 2020 a reduction in the cap budget would directly and negatively impact on farm incomes across all sectors we've just seen the National Farm Survey where on certain livestock farms the direct payments from the EU account for anything up to 113 percent of the average farm income and that highlights the importance of the fully funded cap across virtually every sector in agriculture from beef dairy and lamb to mushrooms and forestry there is a real threat from a number of areas number one reduced access to the UK market through tariff barriers a loss in the value of the UK market through increased low-cost imports and the potential reduction in the cap budget post Brexit the ESRI has estimated that WTO tariffs would virtually wipe out the agri-food trade to the UK with losses of over 2 billion euros for the meat and dairy exports alone at farm level chagaske have looked at the impact of a hard Brexit would have on farm incomes in a scenario where there will be a 10% reduction in cap budget and lower UK food prices farming would be devastated with average incomes falling by 26% with cattle farms being worst hit and suffering a loss of a massive 37% since the vote we in the IFA have undertaken a campaign of engagement with the key stakeholders in the negotiations we've highlighted the very real threats posed to farming livelihoods and to the former minister Tishuk Indakeni ministers Creed and Flanagan we've met with the EU's chief negotiator Michelle Barnier on a number of occasions and also with the British ambassador to Ireland Robin Barnett the IFA Brexit event at Goths which was attended by a number of you and over 400 farmers and industry representatives was addressed by Commissioner Hogan Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed Mareth McGinnis MEP and you a few president Barclay Bell amongst other people from right across the the agri sector we've gone on a campaign of information and persuasion with other farming organizations at EU level and with government representatives of all the other EU countries EU member states will be continuing our engagement with Tishuk Veradkar and Minister Coveney and other stakeholders in the Arachtis government departments the European Parliament and European Commission as these negotiations progress in early March as part of its overall response to Brexit IFA published a policy document which we entitled the imperatives for Irish farmers and the agri food sector in which we identified a number of the key priorities for farming in these negotiations our first priority obviously was to maintain the closest possible trading link between the EU and the UK while preserving the value of the UK market as the formal Brexit negotiations got underway a get underway I want to emphasize how important it is that the government focus is on economic and trade issues while issues relating to the political circumstances in Northern Ireland are hugely important it's also critical that the trade issues are the top priority for the Irish government all parties involved in the negotiations are clear that they wish to avoid a hard border the reality is that the nature of the border we have with Northern Ireland will be dependent on the future trading relationship between the EU and the UK we cannot have certainty as regards the nature of the future border without the trade aspects being resolved in a scenario where different customs and other regular regularity regimes end up being applied to products entering Ireland and Northern Ireland it's very difficult to envisage a scenario where there won't be a hard border I welcome the comments by Tshuk Faradkar at the EU Council yesterday that the objective for Ireland is that there would be no economic border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland after Brexit the most straightforward means of keeping the current border arrangements and minimizing the disruption to trade between the EU and the UK is to agree a trading relationship that does not require customs and regulatory checks this is the UK remaining within the EU's customs union while the UK has reiterated its desire to leave this there is a long negotiation process ahead Ireland should place keeping the UK in the customs union a reaching agreement and a trading arrangement that would have a similar effect at that as the top priority in the talks any free trade agreement must include maintenance of European standards and UK's acceptance of the European common external tariff the value of Irish and EU agree exports cannot be undermined by an increase in low cost food imports into the UK market or by imports that do not meet the high food safety animal welfare health and environmental standards that are required of EU farmers our second priority is a strong cap budget post 2020 in the first instance the UK must fully meet its obligations to the EU budget for the entirety of the existing cap reform program which runs to 2020 post 2020 there cannot be a reduction in the cap budget arising from the UK exit the ongoing discussions at EU level on the future of Europe require a serious examination of the future financing of the EU budget by the remaining member states a reduction in farm income arising from a cut in direct payments would have a direct and negative impact on production export earnings and demand for goods and services in the rural economy other priorities look farmers and the food industry have been badly hit by the weakness in sterling over the past year practical government support to improve competitiveness is required such as making available further low cost financing through the SBCI similar to what the chairman outlined earlier on direct support to producers through cap market disturbance measures must also be considered and greater flexibility and state aid rules is required there must be an increased there must also be increased resources for market access and the promotion for relevant bodies including the Department of Agriculture and Borbia we're now at the starting point of the withdrawal negotiations the initial positive engagements from both sides earlier this week must be built on there's a real need for progress to be made quickly on the initial priority areas of citizens rights the UK financial settlement and the border to minimise uncertainty discussions for the future EU UK framework must commence as early as possible in the withdrawal discussions in conclusion chairman as I've said already Brexit is the greatest threat to Irish farming in any of our lifetimes the livelihoods of thousands of farm families and the future of the agri and food industries are at stake in these negotiations over the past number of months we in the IFA have set out clearly to our political leaders in Ireland and across the EU the critical issues for Irish farming and the food sector in the negotiations rest assured we will continue to keep the pressure on negotiators to deliver an outcome that will secure the interests of this vital sector in the years ahead for this country thank you very much