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

Will the Taoiseach explain what discussions he has held with the British on these matters? What does he intend to do to get the institutions of the agreement re-established? Two years after they collapsed because of a heating scheme, their absence has caused damage to the people of Ireland. I welcome very much what the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Ms Pelosi, said earlier about there being no US-UK trade deal if any harm comes to the Good Friday Agreement, but the greatest harm currently being done to the Good Friday Agreement is the absence of institutions in Northern Ireland and the collapse of its Executive and Assembly. It is extraordinary and must be dealt with.

On no-deal planning, the failure to publish no-deal notices by 29 March needs to be explained, given how the risk of no deal was then significantly higher than it has been in the past two weeks. It is interesting that many of the no-deal notices were published after 29 March. We now know that by 29 March, 50% of businesses which trade with the United Kingdom had not completed the most basic step towards continuing that trade. June is the next point when a no-deal scenario could happen. What efforts are under way to ensure there is a far better response and that our economic exposure is addressed before then? It is clear that previous approaches did not work by 29 March. Will something new in respect of the sectors and businesses be tried? We are all focused on the no-deal scenario but what have been termed soft, or less severe, Brexits would also have an impact. I have spoken to IBEC. Some companies have millions of euro worth of inventory in storage in Britain, for up to four months in the agrifood sector. It is having an impact, therefore, on many companies, not to mention the compliance costs that would emerge in the event of any form of Brexit.

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