Mr. Derek Moran:

I am happy to make one. As far back as late 2014, we were preparing for the risk - it was only that back then - of Brexit. We engaged with the ESRI to examine what the macroeconomic implications might be so that we would have a framework in the event of Brexit. Building on that work, we published a joint paper on the impact of various types of Brexit. With the budget, we published information on where the greatest sectoral impacts would lie. Flowing from that work, the ESRI has examined the possible impacts of a WTO tariffs regime.

Institutionally, a Brexit unit has been set up within the Department, headed by a principal officer. Staffing of that unit will evolve as the business evolves, although there are already a couple of staff assigned to it. We have also increased the number of staff we have in Brussels. We transferred one person from the European Parliament into the Permanent Representation office in Brussels to support the efforts there. There is no doubt but that once Article 50 is triggered, there will be a significant demand in terms of the granular detail around Brexit preparations. As I said, a dedicated unit has been set up in the Department and we expect to increase the number of staff in that unit and in Brussels as this issue develops.