Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is an adage that attack is the best form of defence. People often revert to this strategy when they have difficult positions to defend. The Minister is seeking positive suggestions. I have pointed out some very serious ones he should adapt, among them proper resourcing of his Department and the agencies that have a key role to play in this regard. He did not address my point about the fact that his Brexit unit only has three staff. There are many reasonable, good-sized farms in this country that have three people working full-time on them. I know many others in the Department will be and are already engaged in this task but only three dedicated people are attached to the Brexit unit the Minister himself set up. Similar British units have hundreds of staff working specifically on this issue. It is symptomatic as well that there is no Brexit Minister to engage with countries on behalf of the Government every single day that is available. For example, last week, the Minister was on an important one-week trade mission to Saudi Arabia and neighbouring countries. While he is engaged in other activities and other Ministers are engaged in their day-to-day business, there is no specific person-----

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