Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My question was not about Michel Barnier but the level of meetings that have been held between Irish officials and their counterparts in other member states. Since I posed that question, new information has emerged from the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation on the number of officials. It turns out that when we look at the number of officials who have been hired, we can see that we have hired less than one quarter of the allocation. The allocation was not enough to begin with. IDA Ireland was allocated ten Brexit staff but it turns out that it has hired one. Enterprise Ireland was allocated 39 Brexit staff but has hired just 12. Science Foundation Ireland was allocated three but has yet to hire a single person. The Health and Safety Authority was allocated two but has yet to hire a single person. Of the 54 Brexit officials the Government has given sanction to hire, only 13 have been hired. This is less than one quarter. As Deputy Howlin pointed out, we are moving closer and closer to no deal and need to start scenario planning around what a cliff would look like. Can the Taoiseach tell the House why, given the severity of Brexit and the mounting materiality of Ireland hitting a cliff, the State agencies tasked with dealing with this have hired less than one quarter of the already insufficient allocation they were given?

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