Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

My question also relates to the involvement of the Irish trade union movement in the preparations for Brexit. I do not believe trade unions that operate on a cross-Border basis and are intimately involved in assessing the impact of Brexit or any change in circumstances in jobs have been sufficiently involved. I ask the Taoiseach to address that issue. We have called for two measures, one of which is an early warning system, while the other is a regional forum because, as the ESRI has outlined, the impact will vary from region to region. Some regions such as Dublin will do better, while others will be adversely impacted on, including places as surprising as Waterford which is very dependent on the agrifood sector.

Most of the Taoiseach's answers and those of his predecessor have been almost chicken and egg in their nature, that we cannot act until we know, but we will not know for a long time. However, we need to start making preparations now. In some of the suggestions I have made we can not only seek out the problems and challenges but also, as Deputy Micheál Martin said, generate our own solutions that we can impose and push on others and perhaps identify opportunities that we can drive that will be of particular benefit to us. Will the Taoiseach look at the greater involvement of the trade union movement which has a unique level of penetration of industry, North and South, and how he will involve it in the preparations for Brexit? Will he look at the idea of establishing regional forums to bring together all of the actors in each region in order to identify the regional impact?

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