Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I made a very clear decision that we should not appoint a Brexit Minister as the European Council leaders are the ones who make the decision. The European Parliament must pass the outcome and the Singapore agreement also has an impact. These mixed agreements mean the European Union has competence in some areas but individual and regional parliaments must ratify the matters at the end of the day.

We have some really good people operating in London, Brussels and throughout Europe generally. They are very competent and fully focused. Whoever is the new leader of the Fine Gael Party - I hope he will become Taoiseach, with whatever structure of Government that is involved - will have at his disposal all that expertise on a constant basis and be really fully informed. It will be up to that person to build relationships with the individual leaders, who seem to change on a pretty regular basis at a European level. In my experience anyway, every second or third European Council meeting has another two or three people I might not have seen before because elections take place on a very regular and irregular basis throughout Europe. I wish the best to whomever the party selects as leader. I hope it will be a focus in putting together a Government.

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