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

Bilateral arrangements or agreements are something we have to be very cautious about. There has been enormous European unity across the 27 member states. Where states engage in bilateral agreements, it needs to be done with the knowledge of the European Commission. For example, when it comes to the common travel area, it is something provided for in the withdrawal agreement and the treaties already. We will need to put in place legislation. The House has seen the heads of the Bill with regard to rail travel between Dublin and Belfast. France will have to do something similar with regard to the Channel Tunnel.

With regard to the budget, it is not our intention to - nor do we feel we need to - revisit the budget. The projections being released by the Department of Finance later show that a no-deal, hard Brexit will cause the economy to slow down very sharply but not to the extent that we go back into recession. We are not projecting a return to recession. Employment will continue to grow but not fast enough to keep pace with an expanding labour market. Under our projections unemployment will rise, therefore, and instead of running a surplus this year, we will run a deficit in the region of 0.5% of GNP, which is manageable. It will put us in a different position financially but one we can manage and one we have put the country in a good position for. There are other people who, not too long ago in this House, argued that we should spend more and finance it through borrowing. Our decision not to do that has been proved right. At least now we will be able to afford to borrow to mitigate against the costs of Brexit if we have to.

See this speech in context