Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The focus of this particular visit to Cavan and Monaghan was very much on education, disability and childcare as well as a visit to Cavan County Museum. I engage with business groups and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions regularly but not every day. It is good on occasion to have days where we focus just on education, childcare, disability, health or housing. The particular focus of this visit was education, disability and childcare.

We have not set particular targets for businesses accessing credit under the various Brexit loan schemes. We have decided not to do this for good reasons. There are a lot of businesses that do not want to borrow or increase their debt and this is a decision they are entitled to make. Many of them have paid off debts they built up over the recession period and they do not want to take on new debt. Some have their own reserves and they will use them rather than take on more debt. We want to make sure these low-cost loans are available to business but that is quite different from encouraging businesses to take on additional debt if they do not want to do so.

I meet businesses all the time that tell me they feel they are being unfairly criticised when we say they have not taken up offers of vouchers, Brexit assessments or loans because they have made an assessment themselves that Brexit will not affect them dramatically because they do not trade much or they only trade with particular countries. Sometimes they state they have made a decision to wait and see. They want to see how things will pan out over the coming weeks or months before taking action. We need to make sure the loan supports and information vouchers are available to business but we need to respect the fact that many businesses will decide they do not want to take up these supports because they do not trade with the UK, because they feel they have adequate reserves and finance or because they are already adequately prepared. We have to respect their autonomy and their right to make their own decisions about their own businesses in this regard.

We approved another memo at Cabinet today on contingency planning. We have planned for two things. These are the central case scenario, which is pretty much the deal that has now been made and the deal we hoped would be made, with a transition period, a single customs territory and backstop. We have also planned for a no deal hard Brexit scenario, which we do not think is likely but we must prepare for nonetheless. In many ways they are a graduation of the same contingency plan because the central case scenario requires one amount and the no deal scenario requires another amount of activity. This involved an update on recruitment and we are confident. We have an assurance from Revenue and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine that the necessary recruitment is under way. I cannot remember the exact figure with regard to Customs and Excise officials, but several hundred will be in place in March and the rest will be in place after that. We also examined what would be required in terms of physical infrastructure at Dublin Port, Dublin Airport and Rosslare Europort and how it can be provided. In Dublin Airport it would involve an upgrade to the customs and border services and at Rosslare Europort and Dublin Port it would involve physical infrastructure, such as parking areas for HGVs and examination stations. These preparations are very much under way.

I have no doubt we can be totally prepared for a Brexit with a deal because we have the transition period and we know what will happen if there is no deal. We will have a backstop. It will be impossible for any country to be fully prepared for a no deal cliff edge hard Brexit but we will be as prepared as we possibly can be.

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