Macra na Feirme: Brexit is a big threat to future of farming
Incoming president elect of Macra na Feirme Thomas Duffy says he is “scared” by the possibility of a hard Brexit and how it could potentially have implications on the border counties.
While speaking recently to the Irish Examiner the Cavan native— a dairy farmer who is in partnership with his parents — is more au fait with the implications of a potential hard Brexit.
Thomas Duffy said: “No one can really know what’s going to happen, particularly when we go into the case of a hard border complete crash out, a no deal Brexit.”
Duffy alludes to the current non-stop conversation regarding Brexit, referring to the economic impact, which he described as scary.
When you live in Cavan, you live in a border region, the travel back and forth across the border is absolutely huge
“It seemed to be portrayed that it is one way travel, it’s not. As a milk supplier you will have milk suppliers on one side of the border and it is processed on this side of the border and then it is sent up there for packaging and it’s sent to the UK, that’s the economics of it.”
This is further reflected by the fact that the milk that goes into Baileys Irish Cream travels back and forth across the border five times from once it leave the cow until it’s in the cream, while LacPatrick, based in Monaghan has 1,000 plus farm suppliers who are in every county of the province of Ulster.
The potential social impact, the return of a hard border and the return of an armed checkpoint, were not even contemplated prior the Brexit referendum, scares Duffy more than the economic implications.
“If you are talking about a no deal Brexit you are talking about customs checkpoints, you are talking about a return to the black economy and that scares me on a personal and on a social level.
“We have sent so long in the border regions and as a country re building connections and getting over the horrible dark periods of our history and now you are talking about a possible return to that so that scares me.”
