Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes, they have in the context of discussions we had on the recent budget. In particular, I was approached by the Departments of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and Agriculture, Food and the Marine. There was also a particular focus on Brexit by the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton. Much of his focus was on the development of the third-level education sector here in the context of the challenges we face with Brexit and the pressure that will be exerted on our universities and institutes of technology in the coming years. It was a process in which additional spending requests were made to me. I did my best to respond to them and it played a significant role in the decision we made on the allocation of funding for education and in respect of where we ended up with agriculture, in particular, and the funding for State agencies such as IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland. Deputy Broughan is correct that when the actual decision to trigger Article 50 is made, this will have further consequences, not least of which should be that in the run-up to this the nature of the Brexit the British Government is looking to achieve will become clear. Fisheries policy was discussed as recently as this morning and it is acknowledged as a significant issue of concern.

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