Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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649. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the contingency plans in place to deal with the impact of Brexit on the housing crisis; the number of meetings held by his officials in the past 12 months to prepare for this issue; and the number of meetings between staff of his Department, other Departments, State agencies and other organisations during the past 12 months to prepare for this issue. [47788/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Planning for the U.K.'s exit from the European Union was initiated over two years ago and preparedness for different types of Brexit is well underway across Government. 

To this end, co-ordination of the whole-of-Government response to Brexit is being taken forward through the cross-Departmental coordination structures chaired by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.  In July of this year, the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade presented a Memorandum to the Government on Brexit Preparedness and Contingency Planning.  On the basis of this Memorandum, Departments were tasked with developing detailed action plans to prepare for Brexit.

My Department is contributing to this process and contingency planning is underway.  The priorities include assessing potential impacts on housing and our other areas of responsibility.  This is necessarily an iterative and ongoing process and my Department continues to work closely in this regard with other Departments through the established structures. This includes regular attendance at a wide variety of inter-Departmental meetings that take place on a weekly and fortnightly basis, as well as internal discussions through a range of fora, including a specific cross-Divisional co-ordination group and at the Department's Management Board.

It is difficult to predict with confidence the impact of Brexit on housing as this will be determined in large part by the outcome of the process around the draft withdrawal agreement but also by the nature of the future relationship between the UK and the EU.  Nonetheless, the Brexit planning arrangements in place, taking account also of established approach to longer term planning, including in relation to the National Planning Framework, provide an effective vehicle for ensuring that the potential impact of developments within the evolving Brexit process can be assessed.