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Michael Fitzmaurice acknowledged Britain leaving the European Union (EU) will be costly to the Republic of Ireland but said there were ways to compensate. And he urged politicians to pay heed to the “far bigger threat” of countries in eastern Europe due to their potentially crucial role in determining the EU’s agricultural budget - something Ireland in particular relies on. The independent politician made the claims in a blog post on his website entitled: “Scaremongering about Brexit is unhelpful”.

MICHAELFITZMAURICE•GETTY•REUTERS Michael Fitzmaurice has issued an EU warning

Mr Fitzmaurice said: “Over the past week or so there has been some scaremongering going in with regard to the possible effects that Brexit will have on Irish agriculture and it is unhelpful and in many cases inaccurate.

MICHAELFITZMAURICE Michael Fitzmaurice said it was time for Irish politicians to stop 'scaremongering'

“I have looked at this issue closely and the loss to Ireland would be in the region of €100m (£88m) with regard to the Single Farm Payment. That shortfall can be easily made up by a suggestion that I have made frequently that a cap to €50,000 (£44k) should be applied to the big farmers, be they beef barons, oil sheiks or whoever they are, and that must be an all inclusive figure. “In fact payments to smaller farmers could be increased if we were to impose that cap on payments. A far bigger threat is that of the eastern block countries who will be involved in the CAP discussions in 2020 and in my opinion that will be a much bigger threat to the EU Agri budget than Brexit.”

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For decades Ireland has been a net benefactor of the EU, especially when it comes to farming and agriculture. However this has been chipped away in recent years due to the EU’s expansion eastwards, with Ireland now paying more than it gets out. This is far from the first time Mr Fitzmaurice has come out against Brexit scaremongering.

In January he called on Ireland to stick by Britain as it negotiates a Brexit deal with Brussels. He said: “Ireland’s special relationship with the UK has to be taken into account in any negotiations after the Brexit vote and if that relationship is not respected then Ireland should consider their own position within the EU.

GETTY Eastern European states are more of a threat to Ireland than Brexit, according to an Irish MP