Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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389. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if his Department has received any additional funding or requested additional funding to help meet the challenge of Brexit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16236/17]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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The Article 50 process for the UK exit from the EU has now formally commenced. Since the UK Referendum result last year my Department, like other Government Departments, has been preparing for and engaging on the Brexit process. The 2017 Allocation for my Department included an initial allocation to support the Brexit negotiation process.

Specifically my Department received an additional allocation of €3.2M which facilitated the transfer back to my Department from the Department of the Taoiseach of 14 staff to facilitate the establishment of a new and enlarged EU Division which has overall responsibility for the management of the Brexit negotiations. In addition programme funds to support the secondment of Irish staff to the EU institutions and enhanced public communications and debate on the EU issues were also transferred.

It is clear that these exit negotiations will be complex and intensive. The Department has therefore allocated an additional budget of €2M from the extra allocation provided as part of the 2018 Budget process. This budget will be used to increase the number of staff assigned to the management and support of the negotiations and to increase the level of support provided to our colleagues across all Government Departments and agencies. This will result in the assignment of additional staff resources to our missions in Brussels, London, Paris, and Berlin and in the Department here in Dublin. Some of these additional resources have already been put in place, with the remainder to follow in the immediate period ahead.

It is becoming clearer that there are other implications arising from Brexit that the Department will need to manage. There has been a sustained increase in passport applications from Britain and Northern Ireland follow the UK vote to leave the EU last June. In addition there has been a substantial and sustained increase in the number of Foreign Birth Registrations (that is, the process of acquiring citizenship through an Irish-born grandparent) right across the world.

My Department is continually monitoring the additional needs associated with management of this Brexit process and engaging with the Department for Public Expenditure and Reform.