I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for his indulgence. I welcome our guests from Roscommon. I am half a Roscommon man and the way the GAA is going this year, I think I will be a Rossies supporter this season. I want to support what has been said by my Sinn Féin colleagues in respect of ensuring that bluetongue is addressed on an all-Ireland basis. In my view, it is absolutely crazy that we have a situation in my county, which I am sure is the same across the Border region, if not further beyond, whereby trading North and South has essentially been curtailed. That should not be the case, considering the efforts that went into ensuring we have an all-Ireland system in the outworking of Brexit. It could be argued that during the entire Brexit process, when all of Europe and the entire British establishment was in absolute turmoil, this House remained steadfast in setting out very clearly that the only way we could operate in terms of the food market was on an all-Ireland basis. Yet, it appears to many farmers that with the click of a finger, that can be upended. It is completely crazy. Farmers in Monaghan cannot trade with farmers in Armagh. Let us be very clear about how those communities operate. It would be the equivalent of telling a farmer in Kerry that they could not trade across the border with those in Cork. It is unbelievable that we are even at this point. Not only are we at this point, this has continued for a number of weeks. I want to make an incredibly strong case for an all-Ireland approach and that we ensure the cross-Border limitations are lifted. I also want to seek the assurance of the Minister that the Government is raising this matter at an EU level in order to ensure that animal health certifications are amended, as the virus obviously affects both jurisdictions. This is necessary in order to ensure the live trade experts can resume. We need to scale up testing to ensure there is absolute certainty in respect of where the virus is before the weather gets any warmer and it begins to spread. We have had a desperate number of weeks in terms of weather conditions and farmers are undoubtedly under pressure. As we move forward to the spring, many wonder whether we will see a spring at all. Bluetongue could not have happened at a worse time, especially when the broad climate was generally positive in terms of prices being received. We know there are threats coming down the road. We do not yet know what the situation regarding Mercosur will be. We hope it will not be provisionally applied and that the Government will ensure there is no support for the provisional application of the deal. We know there are other global challenges coming our way. We need to make sure that any challenges that our farmers are presented with are not imposed on them because of the failures of the House and Department to provide support. The core point I want to make is that we deal with this on an all-Ireland basis and stop the lunacy whereby people are being prevented from trading with their counterparts a few short miles away.

Sentiment score: 0.19