Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This morning the chief executive of the Irish Exporters Association stated the obvious, that very few companies were 100% ready for an increasingly likely no-deal scenario. In planning one hopes for the best, but one must plan for the worst. The Government has not properly addressed the lack of readiness at Rosslare Port and Cork Port and the knock-on implications for Dublin city and the greater Dublin area. The Labour Party has called for Rosslare Port to be re-ranked as a tier 1 port in the context of Brexit, yet it has emerged that the site where checks are to be carried out after Brexit was only purchased in March, only weeks before the United Kingdom was originally due to leave the European Union. We do not know what will happen in Dublin if almost all freight in Ireland passes through Dublin Port. Will lorries be parked on the hard shoulder of the M50, northbound and southbound? That would be deeply worrying, particularly since the M50 is effectively clogged up on any given day at peak time. What leadership is the Government prepared to give? Does the Taoiseach appreciate that many people involved in business are very concerned and that some are absolutely terrified of the implications of a hard Brexit for their hard won business.

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