Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is likely that when Article 50 is triggered next spring, the challenge will intensify and grow deeper. We have a particular responsibility to our own workers, jobs in this country, agriculture and the Common Fisheries Policy, about which hardly anyone has spoken so far. My own constituency has an interest in both fisheries and the fact that there may well be profound changes in that area. Most of all, there is the issue of the future status of Northern Ireland and the fact that we want it to have a special status. Clearly, Brexit has huge implications in that regard. The desire of the House has always been to have a national union of our country. Hopefully, that will happen. The circumstances which are now evolving in the North, however, with the responsibility of the Executive, as well as in Scotland and possibly Wales and England itself, may well accelerate the situation. Have other Departments come to the Minister to ask for additional resources as the Brexit process intensifies next year?

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