Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am aware of all that. As I said, I am not asking for the Minister to itemise the measures or to give figures down to the cent. However, sure to God, despite the fact there are negotiations ongoing, the Minister can tell us whether the Brexit contingency fund he proposes to announce this day next week is in the region of €100 million, €200 million, €300 million, €800 million, €1.5 billion or €2 billion. Can the Minister give the House any indication of what scale he is looking at because it is required?

Sinn Féin has made it very clear today that it wants the money that is earmarked for the rainy day fund to be diverted into a Brexit stabilisation fund. This is not new; we have argued for it consistently with the Minister in recent years. It is a €2 billion fund that would be there to be drawn down, if necessary, to deal with the impacts of a potential no-deal Brexit. Can the Minister outline the scale of what is involved? Surely to God the negotiations over the coming weeks will not result in a doubling or quadrupling of the figure with which he is working. I refer to the discussion we had at the Committee on Budgetary Oversight regarding the concerns I raised about the rainy day fund. It cannot be used as per the legislation as drafted. I refer also to my freedom of information request and the response I received, which confirms this in the context of a no-deal Brexit. Is the Minister any closer to making a decision as to whether the €1.5 billion earmarked to be invested in the fund will go into it or whether he will reallocate those resources to deal with potential Brexit mitigation measures?

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