Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy knows, it will be difficult for me to respond to all of those questions in two minutes. We have just come from the Brexit stakeholder forum, where we had a detailed discussion on the current state of Brexit negotiations. There will be votes today in Westminster that will essentially put in place a new timetable for the potential ratification of the withdrawal agreement. It now looks as if the next meaningful vote in Westminster will be on 12 March. It will be on whether the British Parliament decides to ratify the agreement that the Prime Minister and British Government have put in place with the EU. If the British Parliament fails to ratify it, there will be a vote, in all likelihood the following day, on whether the British Parliament wants to accept or reject a no-deal, crash-out Brexit. If that is rejected as an option, the British Parliament will vote on the following day, 14 March, on whether to seek an extension to Article 50 and create more time and space to resolve the outstanding issues. Therefore, we at least have some clarity on those dates. At that point, though, we will be two weeks away from the planned departure of the UK from the European Union on 29 March.

We continue to prepare for all eventualities. That is why we will debate the omnibus legislation for no-deal Brexit planning on Second Stage this week. The Deputy will have heard this morning about how the work that Bord Bia, Enterprise Ireland and other State agencies and Departments are doing with their clients, companies and vulnerable sectors is intensifying across a range of areas and preparing for the worst even though we hope and expect that we will get better outcomes through successful negotiations than the consequences of a no-deal Brexit.

The EU and Irish position in those negotiations remains clear - the withdrawal agreement is not up for renegotiation and will not be reopened to change its legal text. Instead, we are looking for ways to provide clarification and reassurance to the British Parliament regarding its concerns. That will be worked on for the next two weeks.

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