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

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. Last week, he accepted that planning for a position where the United Kingdom is not in the Single Market and customs union is required. Having previously said that there are more than enough impact studies, he also accepted that the most recent impact study, of which we have only seen a summary, shows evidence of serious sectoral impacts which must be planned for. I am sure the Taoiseach will have noticed that the Dutch Government confirmed in recent days that it has identified the number of extra customs officials it will require, depending on different Brexit outcomes, and has begun hiring up to 900 new people on the assumption that the softest outcome will be a free trade agreement with the UK. The Netherlands and other countries appear to have completed very detailed planning and are now moving on to implementation. Even the British Government has got around to some concrete planning, although, so far, it has simply confirmed that it does not currently have the capacity to manage controls outside the customs union in particular and it is unlikely to have this capacity for some years.

While a lot of documents are being issued by the Government, there is nearly no new information about sectoral actions. Will the Taoiseach tell us when he will publish the Government's action plan based on different scenarios? Is it the Government's position that it accepts the estimates by the Copenhagen group and how regularly will this analysis be updated? Now that we have even greater clarity about the huge impact on the agrifood sector, when will we see credible proposals for helping farmers and the food industry to adjust? I would also point out that this is, of course, linked to the multi-annual funding framework which will be discussed at the summit on Friday. The Times, Ireland edition, contains a report to the effect that the bullet-proof backstop will not now be in the actual withdrawal agreement but that it may be in an attached protocol. The Taoiseach might clarify the position in this regard.

For some reason, we do not have statements on the summit that is to be held this week. I hope the Taoiseach will respect the role of the Oireachtas before making commitments on behalf of Ireland regarding matters such as the European Parliament and the choosing of the Commission President. It is a very bad precedent that the Taoiseach is willing to address the European Parliament on these matters but not his own Parliament. It would have been useful to have statements on the forthcoming informal summit.

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