Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is wonderful language with terms like "draft" report, indicating it was not completed. We have read such replies before. To cut to the chase, there has been a consistent pattern of Government in refusing to make plans available or publish reports. It is withholding basic information. The Taoiseach reversed position when he said the Government is preparing for different Brexit scenarios. When I raised this first, he rounded on me, saying he would not tolerate any North-South thing, which is fair enough and nobody agrees with it. Nonetheless, following a couple of days in Derry, the Taoiseach said the Government was examining all sorts of scenarios. He might indicate what specific scenarios are being planned for or considered, and what did he mean by the statement in Derry?

Last week, the British Government caved in to much pressure by agreeing to publish detailed sectoral studies of the impact of different Brexit scenarios for Britain, as it had previously tried to withhold them, claiming negotiations would be undermined if people the underlying facts behind different sectoral analyses. It has been stated that sectoral impact studies have been prepared under the auspices of the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation. Will the Taoiseach agree to follow the British example and publish these impact studies. InterTradeIreland this week stated three quarters of companies have not yet put in place Brexit contingency plans. This is a more urgent issue than one might think.

One of the reasons I called for the Revenue study to be published was to inform public debate and let people know the agenda. There should be no secret around the potential difficulties that Brexit will create in a post-Brexit scenario. There is much language amounting to the political elite covering tracks and hoping things work out better than they might. We all know we are subject to the division within the British cabinet, along with the civil war within the Tory Party and the inability of a coherent position to emanate from Britain.

British business people and traders and Irish SMEs and traders need to understand the full implications of Brexit. People are assuming that it will be sorted out. Some people in this country even believe there will be a second poll. It is as if the political systems in Britain and Ireland want to protect people from the harsh realities that Brexit may result in. No one likes to be the bringer of bad news, but there is a need to be up front with people and to explain what Brexit will mean in various scenarios, for the agrifood industry, the haulage industry, for the ports, maritime and fishing, etc. The more people understand the nuts and bolts of this and the gravity of it in their individual sectors, the better the response will be politically, not just here, but more crucially in the United Kingdom, where opinion is divided across all parties, within parties and in the general public. That whole debate has been abandoned in the United Kingdom.

Withholding reports such as the Revenue report, in my view, is a mistake, and there is no need to do it. Saying it was only a draft report and that events have overtaken it is merely putting a gloss on it after the Government was caught out. We should not have to wait for the media to produce that report for us. It should have been put before the Dáil in the interests of transparency. I am asking the Taoiseach to publish any other available sectoral studies that have been undertaken by various Government agencies and bodies.

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