Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the composition of taxes and spending that would be affected in a no-deal scenario, the areas that would have the most immediate effect would be spending programmes that, for example, might be related to the consequences of people not being in work or having less work. For example, our social supports and Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection spending programmes might be affected. The other area of spending would be related to the kind of mitigants and changes we are putting in place to help our economy cope with the consequences of a disorderly Brexit. The most immediate effect we would face on the budgetary side would be what would happen from a tax flow perspective. Within a tax flow perspective it would be taxes that are most associated with consumption such as VAT.

On what kind of engagement we have had with the Commission, much of it is on the different revenue, customs and transport issues we need to engage with it on. We are having preliminary discussions with it and they are preliminary in the sense that many of those discussions have to wait for the conclusion of Brexit and to see what type of Brexit actually happens to see what kinds of supports might be needed and facilitated from a state aid point of view.