Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the legislative output, three items of legislation are being prepared by the Department of Defence, including the Defence Forces (forensic evidence) Bill, the defence (amendment) Bill and the Red Cross Bill. The targets for this legislation were previously rolled over from 2016 to 2017 and they are now being rolled over again to 2018. I ask the Minister to provide the committee with a follow-up note on the status of this important legislation.

Before we conclude this session of the meeting I again emphasise the point made by Deputy Seán Barrett in regard to Brexit. With every passing day people are becoming more pessimistic about what is going to happen post Brexit. There has been much talk about soft borders and hard borders. Unfortunately, it appears we are to have a border foisted on us again. I sincerely hope that I am wrong but I do not think so in light of the comments of Prime Minister May that a border similar to the Canadian-US border could work here. We have all seen the pictures of how that border works in terms of hardware and the huge queue of vehicles and so on. Members of all Governments should be very conscious of the remarks of former Prime Minister John Major and Senator George Mitchell on the need to avoid borders. Given the current status of the talks I am not optimistic that we can avoid a border in this country but, as a person who lives in a Border community, I sincerely hope I am wrong. I understand that the Minister is not in a position to brief the committee on the preparations being made in this regard by the Department and the military authorities but like Deputy Seán Barrett, I hope that good work is under way.