John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We are now 37 days away from Brexit and the unprecedented challenges it will bring. Multiple Departments and Government agencies are working with the Oireachtas to ensure the omnibus Bill is in place by 29 March. Crucial contingency legislation will be provided in areas such as healthcare, social security protection, student support and protection of consumers. Measures will be provided to facilitate co-operation across the whole of Ireland, including the areas of transport and energy, and to ensure that east-west trade flows as smoothly as possible. We, as elected representatives, are doing everything we possibly can to limit the potential damage from the crisis now facing our country. We are working collectively, regardless of our politics, to protect the national interest.

Ireland will be the country in the EU that is most impacted by Brexit, and it is not possible to fully legislate for a no-deal scenario. This is about damage limitation, and it is incumbent on every Deputy in this House to work together through what is an extraordinary time, in order to mitigate the effects of a worst-case scenario. However, some believe time is better spent on making political footballs, demanding heads and creating sideshows. They prefer to occupy the Dáil agenda with hours of debate on a motion it knows it will not win. There appears to be an insatiable-----

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