Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Lacey and Mr. Fallen Bailey for appearing here. That is probably the most relaxed report about Brexit. On some level, on listening to it, I would be very happy but I am not sure that I should be. Mr. Lacey has said that the market is sufficiently flexible. Obviously, this is something that Mr. Lacey is much more au faitwith than I am.

Mr. Lacey spoke about the land bridge existing before the Single Market. I would argue that it is a far more complex world for imports and exports than it was at that time. Mr. Lacey also stated that there is surplus capacity.

Deputy Richmond and, I am sure, others will deal with how we have heard, from the National Audit Office in Britain, of the absolute lack of preparation. We have all seen the tailbacks. We have heard the worries that the Irish Road Haulage Association has. We also had the port companies before the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications Networks in the past while on the idea that there is a traffic management system that involves the port tunnel possibly being used as a slow-moving carpark that trucks just keep driving around until space opens up.

I welcome the fact that Mr. Lacey talks about communication with other ports. Does that mean we could deal with problems, such as the one that has been pointed out to us whereby Calais's IT system was prepared too quickly and does not allow for goods from this State coming through Britain as a land bridge? That seems like it will be a significant problem and will cause chaos on top of chaos.

In fairness, Mr. Lacey has spoken about a conversation with stakeholders and that there will be a need for adjustments to the supply chain. I want to know what exactly that has consisted of and who are the stakeholders. I assume that should be the hauliers, the ports and the ferries, but it also needs to be the business sector. In fairness, Deputy Richmond spoke about the fact that there are certain goods, particularly fresh food, that needs to be delivered within time.

I welcome the fact that there are new ferries for direct delivery, but sometimes the problem with them is the length of time they take. I would say many businesses involving almost every good operates a just-in-time scenario that is based on the speed of delivery available to them at present, and I am not sure that full preparations have been made. I want to know what conversations Mr. Lacey has had with all these stakeholders. I understand we do not know exactly what Brexit we will have but we know it is bad. Therefore, there will be a considerable operation relating to checks, difficulties, etc. I want to know what Mr. Lacey's plans are, what consultation has happened, with whom it has happened, what is prepared into the future to ensure we can mitigate whatever we can, and that we have some level of operability with imports and exports across Europe from 1 January.