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

On the last question, the French have been unbelievably helpful on this issue. They have committed to ensuring there is a separate lane in Calais for Irish trucks coming off ships that have come over from Dover. I do not expect the same facilitation on the UK side in Dover, where there may be very long queues, and I certainly do not expect that Irish trucks will be able to skip those queues. However, in terms of coming off the ships, Irish trucks and product coming from Ireland will be in a different category - they are essentially coming from the Single Market and going back into the Single Market, using the UK as a landbridge, as opposed to product coming from the UK, which will be product coming from a third country. There will be a separate lane for Irish trucks to allow them to move through the port in a much more streamlined and quicker way.

I want to thank the French authorities for that facilitation. As I said, they have been hugely helpful. We would like to get the same facilitation in other European ports and we are talking to them about that to try to ensure Irish trucks are not treated as trucks coming from a third country. I believe we are making good progress on that.

The Deputy mentioned empty shelves in shops. The information I have is that we are not going to have empty shelves in our supermarkets. We may need to change supply chains, we may need to change suppliers for certain products and some brands may be different in the future. However, retailers are confident that they will be able to continue to fill shelf space, even in a no-deal scenario.

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