Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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9. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the details of all the meetings that she has held to date with her Cabinet colleagues, with her Department, with her departmental agencies and with external stakeholders to address the challenges facing businesses in the face of Brexit and specifically in view of the decline in the value of sterling. [33015/16]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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I am sure the Minister is delighted with that. I hope the Minister will be specific in response. This question relates to the meetings that have taken place on Brexit with Ministers Cabinet colleagues at Cabinet sub-committee level, internally in her Department, with her departmental agencies and with other external stakeholders given that this is the most important topic she is likely to face during her tenure in this Department.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I have had a wide and extensive series of meetings since the result of the UK referendum in June. I am a member of the Cabinet Sub-committee on Brexit, which has already met on a number of occasions. As regards my Department and its agencies, I have established a co-ordination group consisting of the chief executive officers of both IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, and relevant enterprise, Single Market and trade officials from my Department. I am continuing to chair this group.

I have met with a wide range of representative organisations, including the Irish Business and Employers Confederation, IBEC; the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU; the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association, ISME; the Small Firms Association, SFA; the Irish Exporters Association, the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland, the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise Ireland, the Regional Action Plan Implementation Groups, the IDA and Enterprise Ireland client companies as well as the Irish Farmers Association.

In September, I travelled to Brussels and met with Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska, Commissioner for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, and with Commissioner Cecelia Malmström, Commissioner for Trade, and also with Vicky Ford MEP, chair of the Internal Market Committee of the European Parliament.

Yesterday, I was in London and met with Secretary of State for International Trade, Liam Fox, and the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Greg Clark. In addition, I met the UK Trade Minister, Lord Price, earlier this week during his visit to Dublin. I have also met with my Northern Ireland counterpart, Minister Simon Hamilton, and I look forward to ongoing engagement with him, including through the North-South Ministerial Council.

In all of these meetings and fora, I have been very conscious of the need to respond in the most appropriate manner to the challenges presented by the movements in the sterling exchange rate.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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The Minister in her next reply might tell us how many meetings of the Cabinet Sub-Commitee on Brexit have taken place. How many times has the Brexit co-ordination group met in her Department?

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Can the Deputy repeat that?

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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Furthermore, the Minister said earlier that she hopes to met Mr. Barnier. Has she written to him? I asked her an earlier question, which she refused to answer, regarding what she sees as the role of the Irish appointee to the Brexit group in Brussels? At the end of the day it is the Brussels group that will decide the fate of our situation with Britain on Brexit, not Ireland. Therefore, what is the role of that appointee? Has she sought to meet with Sabine Weyand and what role does the Minister foresee her having in this respect? I would appreciate if the Minister could outline specific answers to those questions.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I ask that one of the questions be repeated as I did not hear the Deputy.

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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It was about the formation group.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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I will repeat the questions.

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Just that one relating to the formation group.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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It was the second one.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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I asked about the Minister's contact with Mr. Barnier, Sabine Weyand, the role of the Irish appointee to the Brexit group in Brussels, the number of meetings of the Cabinet sub-committee that have taken place and the number of times the group within her Department has met.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Details of my availability and the meetings I have had have been put up on the web, so the Deputy can check the meetings that I have had. As I said, in our Department we have a business Brexit response, we have a co-ordination group and a departmental Brexit group. I do not have the details, the specific numbers, in respect of the Deputy's questions but I would be more than happy to write to him and answer the questions he has asked.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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I find this extraordinary. I sat where the Minister is sitting now on many occasions during the past five years and for her not have the details of how many times the Cabinet Sub-committee on Brexit has met is incredible. She does not need notes to know whether it met once, twice, three, four, five, six or seven times. I do not foresee it met on any more occasions than that. Similarly, surely she knows the number of times the co-ordination group in her Department has met. She still has not answered the question on Mr. Barnier and, in particular, she has not answered the question on the Irish appointee to the group in Brussels or the question on the role Sabine Weyand will have. The Minister might outline to the House answers to those questions and with a view to giving confidence to Members of the House that she knows the number of meetings that took place and the roles of the three individuals I mentioned.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy. As I said, I will write to the Deputy to make sure he gets the exact number-----

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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That is not good enough. I want the answer now.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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----of meetings. With regard to Cabinet Sub-committee meetings on Brexit, I do not have the figure before me but I sit on a number of Cabinet committees, including the Sub-committee on the Economy, Trade and Jobs, the Sub-committee on Infrastructure, Environment and Climate Action and the Sub-committee on European Affairs.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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It is a waste of time asking questions.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I will give the Deputy-----

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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There are no answers coming.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I will-----

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister without interruption.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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The Minister has an obligation to answer the question.

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister without interruption.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I have said I will write and give the Deputy the exact number and I will copy a letter-----

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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We might as well not have questions at all; the Minister could write all the time.

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I cannot be responsible for the Minister's answers.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I will copy an answer to the Ceann Comhairle and any other Members who would like the answers to the question. I do not have it here but the co-ordination group within our Department, which includes IDA and Enterprise Ireland, meets regularly on a fortnightly basis.