Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am puzzled by that response. The Dáil is 21 sitting days away from Brexit day, yet we only got sight of the heads of the omnibus Bill last week. It was my understanding that the emergency provisions contained in that Bill comprised urgent, new legislation that was being drawn up by the Government in the event of a Brexit crash-out. When I examined the section of the Bill relating to the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, though, it became obvious that it was not new. In fact, it is a copy-and-paste job of the Industrial Development (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2018, which the Joint Committee on Business, Enterprise and Innovation had sight of in October. I appreciate that such provisions will assist our enterprise agencies in the event of a no-deal Brexit, but these amendments to the Industrial Development Acts were not designed or drawn up in the past few months in preparation for a hard Brexit. They were on the way regardless. This looks like the Government is trying to pull the wool over our eyes by copying and pasting forthcoming legislation into the omnibus Brexit Bill in an effort to bulk it up and make the Government look more prepared than it actually is. Will the Minister clarify the situation?

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