Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her response. As I said earlier, Brexit is edging closer and we still have no picture of what it will look like. The issue of the Border has been long-fingered both in December last year and again in March. We need clarity and a firm commitment from the Government on this, the most vital concern to the island and its people. I am extremely concerned that the weak Tory Government in London with the DUP influence could end up scuttling the whole Brexit deal simply to promote the nationalist England-first agenda.

This morning the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, reaffirmed the position that there would be no withdrawal agreement without a solution to the Border. With the British Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, ridiculously talking about London borough borders and the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, recently citing the completely unacceptable US-Canada model, this is a cause for huge concern.

Unfortunately we need to start thinking about real contingency plans for what will probably be a hard Brexit. Has the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation come up with concrete plans for such an outcome? For instance, what will the M1 between Dundalk and Newry look like on 31 March 2019 if no deal is struck before then?

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