Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are talking to all of the key stakeholders. I will be talking to hundreds of businesses again on Friday, in Limerick. We will be doing the same in Letterkenny next week. We are planning in the areas in which we can predict outcomes and we are planning for all potential outcomes. We are not, however, going to add to a sense of panic. For the next two to three weeks, which is the time we have before the vote in Westminster, we should talk about the deal which has been agreed, which solves many of these problems, and we should help maximise the chances of it being fully understood, in a reassuring way, so that we can increase the chances of it passing. We should not be ratcheting up tension about what will happen if it does not pass. If it does not pass, we will have to respond to that, and we will. We have been working for months to prepare for that. I will bring new contingency plans to Government in response. We will work with industry and other parties. We will work in the national interest. Let us not create some kind of self-fulfilling prophecy here. Our job is to plan calmly for all outcomes, to try to predict what is coming down the tracks in a few weeks' time, and to advocate strongly for a deal that is good for Ireland, fair for the UK, and fair for the EU which negotiating teams have taken two years to put in place. That should be our focus between now and the vote in Westminster.

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