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

I could give the Deputy a long written answer, which she will receive in any event, but instead I will speak directly on the matter. While in many ways the public debate on Brexit has lessened somewhat since the middle of April and the putting in place of an extension to the end of October, the Government has not taken its focus away from the issue. Everybody is waiting to see who the next British Prime Minister will be and what approach he will take on trying to find a way of getting a Brexit deal agreed and ratified in Westminster and supported by Brussels and Dublin. While we wait for that new approach, if there is one, we continue to focus on no-deal Brexit preparations. It is a worst-case scenario but a real possibility, particularly in view of the language being used in the current debates relating to the election of a new leader of the Conservative Party.

We are continuing to prepare in the many areas with which the Deputy is familiar, such as finalising port arrangements and ensuring to speak to the small to medium-sized enterprises which are trading with the UK every week but which have, in many cases, not yet registered with customs. They may have to adapt to a very different type of trading environment. Our focus will continue to be on working with our EU partners to find a way to ensure that there will be a managed, sensible Brexit that will be predictable and that will bring us into a new transition period that will provide the necessary legal certainty to Government, businesses and citizens. However, we have worked hard to ensure that we do everything we can within our control to protect Irish citizens should there be no agreement.

Probably the most significant occurrence since we last spoke was the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the British Government in advance of the last British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference which essentially is about protecting the free movement of Irish and British people in both countries and recognising a series of other rights that are linked to the common travel area.

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