Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I will come back to the question about officials but I will answer the questions he asked about Brexit, because he asked me some very specific and important questions on that topic. He asked me whether I had met the Revenue Commissioners to discuss Brexit. I met all of the Revenue Commissioners to discuss this growing risk in the second half of last year. The Secretary General of the Department of Finance, some of our officials and I had a lengthy meeting about some of the scenarios we might have to deal with this year. In advance of getting to this point, I had a very substantive engagement with all of the key members of Revenue on this. I have had at least one further meeting and discussion with the Revenue Commissioners to discuss the point since then, and my officials have had a significant amount of engagement with the Revenue Commissioners on this. This engagement significantly preceded today's debate.

The Deputy asked whether we have made any decisions on introducing checks on the Border. The answer is no, we have not. Any preparatory work happening is being done at locations I already have identified, or those identified by the Taoiseach, that is, key ports which take in the majority of our goods. However, we are not doing anything outside of the public information I have shared. Both of my Departments have had a very large amount of engagement with the Revenue Commissioners and the Office of Public Works on how we can make this happen. In the event of a no-deal Brexit occurring, we will be doing all we can to cope with the consequences that will flow from that from a customs point of view. As I said to Deputy Michael McGrath, unknowns will develop in the area of the movement of goods and the potential customs consequences of that. We will plan to deal with that as best we can but we are now in new territory.

These are the answers to the Deputy's questions.

I will deal with the question of the advice given to me by my officials directly. I cannot recall what the precedent is on sharing advice I receive from officials but I will tell the Deputy that I did not do anything on budget day that was outside of the advice given to me by the Department of Finance or the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. We faced cascading demands in the run-up to the budget and are aware of the challenges and vulnerabilities we could face now. However, every time I appear before a committee, I am faced with demands to spend more. I reiterate Deputy Pearse Doherty voted against the tax measures that have funded the additional expenditure the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council is now criticising.