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

Some 85% of them have a Brexit plan in place already. Generally speaking, IDA firms know what they are doing. They are the multinationals which invest here in Ireland. We need to improve preparedness, however, particularly among small and medium enterprises, SMEs, that export to the United Kingdom. Seminars are available. They are happening all over the country and assist businesses to become Brexit-ready. The Deputy will have heard some of the advertisements on the radio prompting people in business to do exactly that. Customs training is available and we have also made low-cost loans available to business.

On the Deputy's question about customs officials, we have a panel of 3,000 people who have applied to be customs officials. A minimum of 200 will be in place in March but that can be increased to a much greater number should we find ourselves in a hard Brexit, no deal scenario. The comparisons with Holland, and with Rotterdam in particular, are not valid. Rotterdam is a massive port which handles ten times as much trade as our Irish ports, so obviously the numbers in Rotterdam are going to be much greater than those required in Dublin and Rosslare.

In terms of making information public, we are very happy to give the Deputy full briefings and information through the Brexit stakeholders' group. We will publish plans, but it must be borne in mind that this situation is still evolving. Brexit planning happens on two levels. Most of it is led at a European level from Brussels. Some 70 notices have been issued already. The final seminar at European level will only happen on 10 January. Our domestic preparedness comes in under that. Any plans we produced now would have changed again by the middle of January. We will do that.

See this speech in context