Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. There are four matters I would like to raise.

Many of them follow on from yesterday's discussion on North-South relations. I would appreciate it if the Taoiseach could elaborate on what efforts the Government is making to work with industry, individuals and sectoral groups to prepare for the new Brexit checks that are due to come into place on 1 January. What is being done to continue the excellent efforts to diversify the trade routes in order that we can trade directly with our largest market, namely, the Continent? What impact is Brexit having on overall Anglo-Irish relations? Without getting into too much detail, the political climate in London is a little confusing today and there is a big fear that whatever controversy the British Government faces will lead to it using the dead-cat strategy, such as by invoking plan B on Covid or making yet another threat to trigger Article 16. I ask the Taoiseach to elaborate on the continuing efforts between himself, European partners and the British Government to ensure Article 16 is not needlessly triggered.

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