What milk suppliers want to see in 2017

Obviously, the most notable thing that’s going to happen in 2017 is the scheduled (March) triggering of Article 50 that starts the clock on Brexit.

I’m a naturally positive person but I have to confess to real anxiety about the way this could unfold.

As farmers we’re hugely supportive of the EU but that doesn’t mean we can completely abdicate our own national interests, and ICMSA wants and expects to see the Irish Government really insisting that we have vital national interests — to a degree that no other member state has — and that we have every right to insist on those vital national interests being ‘front and centre’ in the Commission’s negotiations with the UK.