The government would have liked to have “spent a lot” from the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR) fund on the agricultural sector but it was unable to meet the “criteria” to do so, the Taoiseach has revealed.

Ireland was allocated in the region €1 billion, which is 20% of the entire reserve. It received €361.5 million in 2021, €276.7 million in 2022 and will receive a further €282.2 million in 2023.

But Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told the Dáil that Ireland has been “limited” in how it could spend BAR funds.

“We would have liked to have spent a lot of it helping businesses, for example, and the agricultural sector but in order to do so, we have to demonstrate that those businesses have lost their profits or have gone into the red solely as a consequence of Brexit.

“Given the increased trade that has occurred between Britain and Ireland, the performance of business and rising incomes, this did not fit the criteria,” he said. 

However the Taoiseach also said that when money from one fund is not spent, it can be moved to another fund “and we have moved this money to another fund called the European recovery fund”.

BAR funding

The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) has repeatedly call on the government to use the BAR fund to “rescue” the sector which has been hit by low prices and spiraling input costs.

The association has campaigned for a portion of the BAR fund to be used for a €50 million emergency support package for sheep farmers to cover 2023 and 2024.

But the Taoiseach also told the Dáil previously that:

“To use the Brexit adjustment reserve fund, one needs to be able to prove to the European Commission that Brexit is the reason prices are low and input costs are high. That would be a very difficult thing to prove.

“Unfortunately, we are finding great difficulty being able to meet the tests to draw down money from that fund.”

According to the Irish Farmers Association a total of €50 million from the BAR fund “is going to primary agriculture”.

The president of the IFA Tim Cullinan has called on the government to “immediately explain” where the fund has been allocated.

“We appreciate the tight criteria to access this funding, but there are very mixed messages coming from government about why some proposals have been included and others have not.

“I raised this with Tanáiste Micheál Martin at a recent meeting of the Brexit Stakeholder Forum.

“While we have not yet had a ‘Hard Brexit’, Irish agriculture is still facing an uncertain future in relation to the UK market, especially with the new trade deals the UK are signing,” Cullinan warned.

The IFA said it had recently met with officials from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and submitted “a detailed document outlining the challenges every sector of Irish agriculture is facing because of Brexit”.