Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I think it is fair to say this is still very much an evolving situation. We may find that if Britain leaves the customs union and the Single Market it may be still possible to negotiate a UK-EU free trade agreement that retains much, most or almost all of the elements of the customs union and the Single Market. For example, places like Switzerland operate such arrangements.

There could be budgetary implications, but again it depends on the nature of Brexit. One of the things I would envisage us having at some point is a transition fund for business, to allow business to adapt and change in reflection of the fact that Brexit will change the rules of trade. However, we cannot set up such a fund until we know the new rules of trade. That is the difficulty with all of these matters. We may need greater investment in some of our ports, such as Rosslare, for example, so that we can have better direct connections to continental Europe.

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