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Simon Coveney, Ireland’s deputy prime minister, has said his Fine Gael party will only vote for an EU trade agreement that ensures a level playing field for Irish farmers, if they are re-elected after Ireland’s general election on 8 February.

His declaration is a sign of the complexity to come on the EU side of the next stage of Brexit talks with member states battling to protect their own interests.

Coveney, who was in Brussels yesterday but back on the campaign stump at home today said:

I was with Michel Barnier yesterday and we spent a lot of time talking about farming and fishing. He’s somebody who understands this brief, only too well. If we do not succeed in getting a good trade deal in place, then the €5bn of food that we sell to the UK each year becomes a trade that that will be put under threat.

With almost 50% of Ireland’s beef exports and 47% of cheddar cheese going to the UK, reducing trade barriers in agriculture will be a red line for Ireland.

Speaking in Fermoy Mart, in County Cork, he said that a seamless trade deal would include a zero tariff or quota regime. “These are serious issues, and they impact on every farm in the country, and by extension on every rural community in the country as well,” he told farmers.

