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

First, many of the support packages for businesses to adapt to Brexit are already in place and are already being drawn down. For example, there was a very significant support package from Enterprise Ireland to help the Carbery Group diversify away from an over-reliance on the UK market for cheese to adapt to be able to focus on other markets for a portion of its output. If the Senator notes what the Commission has already said regarding the de minimisrules around state aid supports for farmers, the ceilings have been increased significantly from €15,000 to €25,000. This is already in train. We are already spending tens, if not hundreds, of millions of euro of taxpayers' money on Brexit preparation and on no-deal Brexit preparation.We will know a lot more in the next 48 hours. If no deal becomes likely, rather than just a possibility, we will advance these preparations in order to ensure they can kick in quickly, as opposed to starting real discussions after 29 March. The political system will have to respond to what will effectively be an emergency management situation if it appears that Britain will crash out of the European Union without the benefits of the certainty that a deal and a withdrawal agreement can bring.