Brexit and the meat sector key topics for the 18 meeting of the Food Wise 2025 High Level Implementation Committee

08 November 2018

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed TD, today chaired the 18 meeting of the Food Wise 2025 High Level Implementation Committee (HLIC), where Brexit (a standing agenda item) and the Food Wise Meat Implementation Report were discussed.

Referring to Brexit, Minister Creed said “The co-ordination mechanisms around the Food Wise 2025 process provide a vehicle for ensuring that all of the relevant state agencies are aligned in terms of preparedness for Brexit. Today the High Level Implementation Committee received a report on the work being carried out in this area across Government. My Department is playing its part in these whole of Government Brexit preparations, and will continue to engage with stakeholders and citizens through the “Getting Ireland Ready for Brexit” initiative and through its own consultative committees”.

The Committee also received a report from The Food Wise Meat Implementation Group. This group was convened under the chairmanship of Michael Dowling, to monitor and drive the implementation of the meat Food Wise actions and the future development of the meat sectors. The report followed a series of meetings between the Department and stakeholders across the beef, sheep, pig and poultry sectors.

Concluding, Minister Creed said: “It is really heartening to see a group like this, comprising stakeholders across the meat sectors and in different tiers of the supply chain, collaborating to produce a very useful report that can provide valuable input in the effort to deliver on the ambition in Food Wise 2025. I would like to thank the Chairman Michael Dowling and the industry stakeholder groups for this essential piece of work”.