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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 5, inclusive, together.

My Department works closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which has overall responsibility for Brexit. A comprehensive set of Government structures has been put in place to ensure that all Departments and their agencies are engaged in detailed preparedness and contingency activities. Since well before the referendum in the UK, Brexit has been the subject of detailed contingency planning across all relevant Departments. Staff across several divisions in my Department contribute to the work on Brexit, including the international, European Union and Northern Ireland divisions, as well as the economic division. To augment this ongoing work, my Department also has a dedicated unit on Brexit preparedness and contingency planning. The unit, working closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, focuses on cross-Government co-ordination, planning and programme management. The unit provides assistance to a Secretaries General group, chaired by the Secretary General to the Government, which meets weekly to oversee ongoing work on national Brexit preparedness and contingency planning.

The unit also assists an assistant secretaries group on no-deal Brexit planning which meets on a regular basis. This group is wholly focused on planning for a no-deal scenario based on the Government’s contingency action plan published last December. That plan provides detailed sectoral analyses and approaches to mitigate the impacts of a no-deal Brexit. On 30 January, an update to the contingency action plan was published, setting out how preparations for a no-deal scenario have intensified since December.

Our preparedness and contingency planning takes full account of and complements the steps under way at EU level to prepare for the UK’s withdrawal, notably as regards the implementation of the European Commission’s contingency action plan. There is ongoing engagement between Irish officials and their European Commission counterparts. The unit, in conjunction with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, also assists a senior officials group on Brexit-related legislation, which also meets on a regular basis. The group is overseeing the necessary primary and secondary legislation required for a no-deal Brexit. This has involved a painstaking, whole-of-Government screening of our laws to determine what changes will be needed if the UK becomes a third country overnight.

On 22 February, the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2019, known as the Brexit omnibus Bill or BOB, was published. This landmark legislation crosses the remit of nine Ministers and is made up of 15 parts, all of which are designed to prepare Ireland for a no-deal Brexit. The senior officials group on legislation will continue to work on the omnibus Bill as it progresses through both Houses of the Oireachtas. Work is continuing in parallel on complementary and necessary secondary legislation. The Government will continue to work very closely with Opposition parties in the Oireachtas and all members of the Dáil and Seanad to ensure that this necessary legislation will be in place by 29 March 2019 in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

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