Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I am aware of the issue, the seriousness of it and the impact it could have on the food industry and people who work there. It does fall more under the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, as the Deputy will understand, than under my Department. Anyway, it is important that I am across it too.

We are yet to see the full outworking of Brexit, unfortunately, because Britain is yet to impose its checks and customs controls on our exports into Britain. As I often say, Brexit is not done and will never be done. It is a change in the trading environment and relationship between Britain and Europe, including Ireland, and it will continue to unfold in the coming years.

One thing we are doing to help business is provision of the €9,000 grant from Enterprise Ireland that businesses can avail of to designate a member of staff as a customs official. A business can either take on a new staff member or take on someone part-time. That help is still available. The uptake of it has been good but there is still money left in that fund and I would encourage businesses to avail of it.