Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Before addressing the wider issue, will the Taoiseach say when we will receive the assessment of no-deal preparedness levels and updates on business preparedness, which he promised me three weeks ago?

Yesterday, the Taoiseach continued his strategy of aggressive partisanship relating to Brexit, which drove much of his behaviour in trying to bring down his Government last year and was a defining feature of the Fine Gael event last weekend. He has aggressively attacked anybody who has challenged him to be open with the Irish public about what is being planned. Trading on the understandable focus on the national interest by the media and others, the Taoiseach has been desperate to try to paint others as up to no good. Now he has gone even further and said that it is a conspiracy theory to suggest that anything has been discussed about what would happen at the Border if there was a no-deal scenario. Anybody who raises what was discussed is engaging in conspiracy theories, yet the Taoiseach has been forced to admit on the record of the House that talks with the Commission have been happening at official level. He went on to say yesterday that there are no papers or documents and there is nothing to share. For months he has said there are no talks and that it will only be necessary to have talks if there is no deal, but now he admits there are talks and expects us to believe that these talks are taking place without anybody saying or sharing anything.

Businesses throughout the country are desperate to know what scenarios to plan for, and the Irish people have a right to know what is being discussed. Every country in Europe, except Ireland, has informed its people what will happen if there is no deal. Will the Taoiseach confirm what he said yesterday, that while talks are being held with the Commission, these talks are without papers or documents and nothing has been discussed that needs to be shared? What instruction, if any, has been given to officials for these discussions?

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