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Ministers McConalogue and Poots meet on shared concerns

With less than a month to go before the end of the Brexit transition period, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue, T.D met with his Northern Ireland counterpart Minister Edwin Poots on the 3rd December.

The Ministers discussed a range of shared issues including how best to further develop the all island food production model, avian influenza, cross border milk processing, food labelling, strengthening north/south ties post 1st January as well as a range of other concerns.

Commenting on the meeting, Minister McConalogue said, ‘“This is the latest in a series of bilateral meetings I have had with Minister Edwin Poots alongside our collaborative efforts as part of the North South Ministerial Council.  Both Minister Poots and I share many of the concerns surrounding the potential of not securing a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the EU and the UK and what this would mean for farmers, fishers and food businesses on the island. We are committed to seeing the current seamless trade continue.’’

“The complexities of Brexit continue to throw up issues including to cross border milk production, food labelling and mixed origin products. Both Minister Poots and I agreed to engage on these issues so that we can find the best course of action that best protects the interests of our respective farming communities.”

Minister McConalogue added that both he and Minister Poots discussed Ireland’s PGI application for Grass Fed Beef and again stressed his strong desire for Northern Ireland to be added to the process in the coming period of time.

Minister Poots stated “Minister McConalogue and I had a constructive meeting, discussing a number of critical issues where we share similar concerns around Avian Influenza and the environmental impacts of the recent peat slippage at Meenbog. The most pressing issue discussed was the continuation of free-flowing trade between our jurisdictions. Farming, fishing, and food production and distribution would be key beneficiaries of a UK/EU Free Trade Agreement and Minister McConalogue and I are in complete agreement on that. I was pleased to hear Minister McConalogue confirm his commitment to Northern Ireland being included in any PGI designation for grass fed beef and that officials from both jurisdictions are working on this at pace, and as a minimum any covering letter for the application would indicate a desire to include NI as soon as verification systems are in place.’’

“We also took the opportunity to discuss a number of issues around the environment and carbon-sequestration, and in particular, ensuring collaboration between research organisations in NI and ROI to help provide robust information on carbon sequestration – we can and must do more together on the agri-environment side that will reap benefits for both.”