Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the Deputy's additional questions, the job figures the Deputy has associated with the change in levels of employment and unemployment are correct and are in line with what my Department stated a number of months ago.

Second, in respect of the Deputy's question about regulatory alignment, the Copenhagen papers articulated clearly that an effect that will be at least as big as the effect of tariffs on our terms of trade could be a shift in the regulatory rule book for trade between the UK and the European Union. The impact of that on our economic growth and on our jobs at this time is difficult to quantify because it is difficult to forecast what, if any, change could occur. As the Deputy has said, all this points to the UK, the EU and Ireland doing all we can inside the framework of the task force on the UK to come up with a positive trading relationship in the future. It is a trading relationship that would be different from what it is now but we are all conscious of the risks that are inherent in a disorderly or hard Brexit.

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