Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My question relates to the sectoral plans which were discussed. There has been a lot of diplomatic activity, but when it comes to work at home, with the business and farming communities, there has been considerable inertia on the part of the Government. For instance, IDA Ireland has hired one of the ten people it has been enabled to take on, while Bord Bia and the Health and Safety Authority have hired none. Enterprise Ireland has hired less than one third of its allocated staff. One of the things we need is a detailed response or contingency plans sector by sector. The words used by the Taoiseach were that "work is under way" and that we were "engaged in detailed planning." We knew about Brexit a year ago. The vote happened in June 2016. If a multi-billion euro corporation had found out a year ago that a massive threat was coming its way, it would have contingency plans in place by now. We are aware of some of its scale. The Department of Finance states 40,000 jobs might be at risk. In trade we lost €500 million last year due to currency fluctuations. As I noted, the State agencies are way behind in hiring the people they need. The business and farming communities and people living in Border regions are getting very scared and a year after the Brexit vote we are still waiting for detailed sectoral plans.

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When can we expect to see those plans? When will the Taoiseach share them with the Dáil and the sectors involved? When can we get involved in the detail and debate it to see if we can come up with solutions in working together?

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