Ms Patricia Callan:

As to whether the Government and its agencies are prepared for a "no deal" Brexit, they are absolutely not. They have been very clear that they are planning for the central case scenario of having that transition. Even in my last engagement with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, I challenged that because it is bad. Our Revenue Commissioners have no plan for customs on this island. All the focus has been on east-west customs with the basic presumption being that it will not happen as there is political agreement that it will all be sorted. We think it would only be responsible to have done some sort of analysis, but the official position is that they have done nothing. That is what they have told us. That means we will be at the cliff's edge on 29 March and no one can plan for that. People have to focus on where to put resources. Logically, one is listening to all the mood messages and taking the view that it could not possibly happen. If it does, however, really dramatic decisions will be required. One cannot have everything in place across all sectors and regulatory areas. One would have to have some way to keep things going for a while by doing fewer inspections and so on.

As to contingency planning by our members, everyone is taking this very seriously. The larger companies have spent a great deal of money and carried out very detailed case studies around supply chains and the like with a view to ensuring everything is seamless and that there is as little impact as possible on the consumer.

We cannot just think negatively. UK-based businesses are also reviewing from where they will supply. There might be some upsides such as, for example, in joint shipments to third countries. Irish whiskey is packaged in Scotland and sent from there. It might make more sense to turn it around and do it from here.

In a real practical sense, we brought members by one by one into the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to work through their specific issues. The questions are about ports. People want to know if Dublin Port is going to work. They want to understand what will the tracking systems be, the lanes and who will be given priority. They are the questions companies are asking. It is granular stuff. It has been an interesting process and the companies have found it helpful to obtain that level of detail.

We have also been to Task Force 50 twice in the past five weeks to work through detailed excise stuff and how it will all work. It must be borne in mind that the UK Government has also come late to this process. Our very first meeting on excise issues with the UK authorities was about six weeks ago. There is no level of planning, although we certainly found good engagement and people had a good understanding of our issues.

My concern is that if we keep on going with the unknown, businesses will have to make decisions. They cannot just adopt the wait and see approach. People are already stockpiling and warehouses are full across the retail sector, as well as in our industry. Owing to that advance buying, one will see knock-on implications for both the Irish and UK economies when it all rolls out. One then has practical issues in terms of physical movements and planning for them. One might hear people saying they have had enough of this and they will hedge their bets one way or another in either jurisdiction, in the North or the South in our case. The Government needs to up its communications on the detail. We hear about how many jobs are being created in Departments and agencies, but we do not hear how it is going to help us as businesses. We know that is essential, as well as how protection of the food supply chain is critical.