Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

To be clear, I do not blame the Government for Brexit but we can hold it to account for the lack of preparation, the lack of communication of the preparation, the lack of a plan for what will happen and the hoping against hope that everything will be all right on the night. While we know that Brexit will be bad whatever way it happens, all we can ask the Government to do is to be fully prepared and answer questions that arise as to what checks would be on animals and food products at our borders. The Minister has previously refused to answer that question, as have other Ministers. We always speak in terms of discussions, negotiations and correspondence, but what will actually happen if Britain crashes out in a no-deal Brexit? Nobody knows whether that will happen but it is no good for the Government to hope that it will not happen. I hope it will not happen but if I were in the Minister's seat, I would ensure we were fully prepared and would do everything we could to ensure our farmers, food industry, consumers and we were best prepared for it.

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