Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Earlier this week I brought a memo to the Cabinet with an update on the delivery of infrastructure to prepare for Brexit because my Department is the lead Department for delivering on that infrastructure. This has been ongoing for some time, to be fair, and a great deal of progress has been made. In respect of the 1 January potential cliff-edge date, what needs to be done for that date has been completed at Rosslare Europort. There is a longer-term plan but what needs to be done for 1 January has been completed.

Similarly for Dublin Airport, what needs to be done has been completed, while for Dublin Port, the vast majority of the works have concluded. An environmental approval was required from An Bord Pleanála for the completion of the remaining projects and that has come through. Some outstanding works, therefore, will extend to 2021, but the contingency plan is being put in place by the relevant agencies along with my Department. Those agencies will include the HSE, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Revenue Commissioners, and they are working with an infrastructure group led by the Secretary General of my Department.

Funding is not the issue; it is a timeline issue. The vast majority of works required at Dublin Port have been completed. I visited it a few weeks ago to see for myself and significant progress has been made. I am confident the port will be ready to deal with whatever scenario arises on 1 January.