Tipperary farm leader says Government 's contingency plan 'sets off alarm bells'

Farmers will be very alarmed and concerned that they continue to be left completely exposed to Brexit, according to ICMSA president Pat McCormack.

There was “absolutely nothing” in the Government's Brexit Contingency Plan that would ally these fears, he said.

“The hard facts of the situation are that the primary producer in the agriculture sector is the most exposed individual to any implications of Brexit given that the processors will simply pass on the negatives,” said Mr McCormack.

The Government and the EU had done “absolutely nothing” to protect the primary producer, he said.

“We have been left hoping that the UK House of Commons will pass the deal to save us from the negative consequences and we are now down to days in terms of no deal crash out,” said the ICMSA president.

Mr McCormack said that such a scenario was completely unacceptable.

It was about time that our policymakers woke up to the fact that certain sectors were extremely exposed. Opening markets while welcome will not solve this massive problem facing us, he said.

The Tipperary-based president said that the contingency plan made “absolutely no reference” to what plans the Government or the EU had to counteract the imposition of tariffs or the potential losses that will occur from Brexit.

“ To suggest that BEEP is a response to Brexit is stretching credibility and if it is a response, farmers would simply ask the question, where are the measures for milk, dairy beef production, tillage, sheep etc?” he said.

Mr McCormack pointed out that farmers and other business people were entering uncertain times “while politicians continued to play games”.

“It is about time that hard decisions were taken that will actually protect these exposed sectors. Politicians are playing for time and our sector, and let’s be clear, the economic bedrock of rural Ireland, is facing its biggest threat in decades,” he said.

Mr McCormack said that there needed to be a step up in terms of measures to support the sector and greater priority given to its issues.

Meanwhile, IFA president Joe Healy said that with just 100 days to Brexit, there was massive concern among all farmers and especially livestock farmers about prices and exports to our most important export market in the UK.

“Our Taoiseach and Tanaiste have told us about all sorts of contingencies like customs posts and hiring extra vets, but we haven’t heard anything about what plan has been put in place to protect Irish farmers, who are the most exposed in Europe,” he said.

He said that the time had come for the Mr Varadkar and Agriculture Minister Michael Creed, along with the EU Commission, to come forward with a comprehensive programme of supports that will address the real issues around market supports and cattle prices.