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

It is important to say the Cabinet held a special meeting in Cork on Friday in UCC to deal with two issues, namely, Brexit and health reform. It is fair to say Brexit took up the majority of the day's deliberations. I did this because it was important to include the Cabinet in the discussion on Brexit, particularly with the European Council meeting coming up this week, rather than just a Cabinet sub-committee. We will have another full Cabinet meeting tomorrow to deal with the Finance Bill. As Deputies will probably see, between last Friday and Wednesday of this week, we will have had three Cabinet meetings, which is reflective of the different approach I am taking as Taoiseach, which is to have the full Cabinet meet more frequently and for longer periods of time in order that we can have genuine collective responsibility, whereby all Cabinet members will be across the big decisions being made. It will be the total reverse of what happened during a previous Government, of which I was a member, when a sub-committee called the Economic Management Council made lots of decisions and informed the rest of the Cabinet of them. That is something I never favoured and was never part of. It is not the way I propose to lead a Government.

Separate to the Cabinet committee on Brexit, the Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, the Minister of State, Deputy Helen McEntee, and I also meet regularly to discuss European affairs and European policy. Actually holding a Cabinet sub-committee which we can all attend is very difficult. For example, today the Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, and the Minister of State, Deputy Helen McEntee, are at the General Affairs Council and the Foreign Affairs Council; therefore, it would be impossible for us to have a Cabinet sub-committee meeting today. On Thursday and Friday the Minister of State, Deputy Helen McEntee, and I will be at the European Council and it would not be possible for us to attend a meeting. Whereas Deputy Mary Lou McDonald may suggest Cabinet committees should meet all the time, in practical reality that is not achievable because we are all coming and going all of the time because of the nature of our jobs. That is why I want to centre more things around the Cabinet and the bilateral and trilateral meetings involving the key Ministers.

On contingency planning, it is appropriate for any Government in office to plan for worst-case scenarios. Some years ago we had a plan for what we would do if the euro fell apart; of course, therefore, Governments have to engage in contingency planning. Doing a desktop exercise and engaging in due diligence on worst-case scenarios are very different from what seems to be Fianna Fáil policy. Perhaps RTÉ misreported what had happened at the Ard-Fheis, but I distinctly read an article about a motion being passed calling for an electronic border with gantries and M50 style tolls. I think that is to what Deputy Mary Lou McDonald was referring. It seems that it is Fianna Fáil's policy-----

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