Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister indicated in his statement that he has spoken at least once to every other EU foreign Minister. That is crucial. I know he intends to keep that engagement going. How many bilateral meetings does the Taoiseach have left to do with his counterparts? I understand from questions to him yesterday that he may have done one third of the meetings. What plans are there to ramp up this process? It is difficult when he has to keep his eye on things here and abroad but anyway, that is crucial.

Does the Minister have an indication of the position from the British Government? The British Government had mentioned March as the time to table the Article 50 letter. Has the British Government given an indication as to whether the date will be put back somewhat? What is the EU's view? I get a sense that the EU is pushing to have this dealt with far quicker.

Another question relates to the special status for Northern Ireland. I met the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland the day before yesterday. I put it to him that I and my party were particularly disappointed and dismayed that the British had rejected out of hand any notion of special status for Northern Ireland. I asked the Minister this question yesterday. I am trying to clarify the position of the Irish Government on special status for Northern Ireland. I took it from our debate in the Dáil yesterday that we seem to be in agreement with the British on that point. I hope that is not the case.

I have another question on the trade side following from the remarks of Deputy McLoughlin. This area is crucial as well. While there are many risks to all sectors, there also are many opportunities. How is the Department tracking the various issues in each sector? This is a vast issue. Deputy McLoughlin referred to haulage but this applies to any sector. I met representatives from Horse Racing Ireland last week. Some things we would never think about are impacted because of Brexit. Is an inventory of the issues in the various sectors being updated on a regular basis? How is the Department tracking things to be able to deal with them? I will not even go into examples because the Minister knows what I am talking about. Anyway, it is vast and I still am concerned that we do not have the resources. While an additional €325,000 appears to have been allocated to support EU engagement, who is keeping the ledger in respect of resources on the administrative side in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade? Who is keeping an inventory of the various issues with which every Department must deal? I will leave it at that.