Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will try to answer them in order.

I thank Senator O'Mahony for his questions. There are two objectives, as matters stands, one of which is that in the case of the Enterprise and rail and bus services, the amount of disruption should be kept to the absolute minimum. Talks that are ongoing have that objective in mind. I am pretty confident that in the talks that are ongoing between my Department and the British Government and NI Railways there will be a seamless transition in a no-deal Brexit. There is enough evidence to suggest we will be able to do so where we will be able to introduce a bilateral rail agreement at an early stage. There is enough evidence to suggest that in the preliminary talks which are not bilateral talks but exploratory talks we will certainly reach enough agreement between the companies involved, namely, Iarnród Éireann and NI Railways, such that we will have train services running on the same basis until we can introduce a bilateral agreement which is allowed by the European Union and can be conceded to by it at a very early stage after 29 March. It is a very fair question, but we will not see passengers being turfed out at the Border or anything like it. That will not happen. We will have a situation where the process will be seamless because there will be an agreement and a contract in place between the companies and because the Governments will obviously be in favour of it also. There will be minimum disruption because of the contract arrangements. The practical experience in both cases will be similar to what is being experienced. That is why we are looking at rail services as a matter of urgency because the Enterprise is absolutely a key symbolic link between the North and the South.