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

I thank the Deputies for raising the issue. The necessity for a debate on Brexit preparedness is a fair point. We must be honest too. We did have a good debate in the context of the Brexit omnibus Bill that went through the House two weeks ago. Various Ministers took that Bill in respect of their various areas of responsibility in terms of preparations and decisions we have taken for Brexit.

Even in the event of a deal, we are still facing a significant degree of disruption. One is going from 1.5 million customs declarations per annum prior to Brexit to 20 million per annum, even in the context of a trade deal. The enormity of this cannot be understated. Notwithstanding the fact that approximately 72,000 companies have registered with Revenue, representing 97% of the value of our exports, quite a significant number of SMEs have not registered and are not prepared. There has been a low take-up of the €9,000 grant to facilitate companies to employ someone to help them with their customs issues.

Whether we could do it next week might be a problem. I have to go on Wednesday afternoon for the Council meeting on Thursday and Friday. I must alert the House to the fact that we could be very well discussing preparations for a no-deal Brexit. The situation is serious in terms of where we are now. This is not about choreography, as some people might think. There is a very serious issue with respect to the level playing field that will be difficult to resolve. Unfortunately, we are facing the prospect of a no-deal Brexit if something does not break that over the next day or two. That is why I have no difficulty in accepting the request.

I welcome the decision of the British Government to pull back and withdraw the offending clauses of the internal market Bill, as well as not to proceed with the offending clauses in the taxation Bill later this week. That paves the way for the operation of the protocol and the withdrawal agreement which the European Commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, and Michael Gove have been negotiating for quite some time.

Those negotiations went smoothly over the past two weeks and a lot of difficulties have been ironed out. On that front and in that strand of the talks, it is positive in terms of the all-island economy and the Border issue. However, of great significance, as Deputy Mattie McGrath stated, are the implications of the UK-EU future trading relationship, which will be a major challenge for us and which will have implications for fisheries, for the agrifood business, in particular, for the west of Ireland and for the Border counties if we end up in the next week or so with no deal.

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