Dáil Éireann Debate, Monday - 11 September 2017
493. Deputy Joan Burton asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of staff deployed full-time in his Department in respect of Brexit; if there is a designated section or unit to deal with Brexit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38009/17]
View answerManaging our response to Brexit has impacted on the work of many staff at Headquarters and a significant number of those overseas. Additional staff have been assigned to the key Divisions with responsibility for Brexit matters, the European Union Division and the Ireland, UK and Americas (IUKA) Division, to cover the issues arising from the UK exit process.
The European Union Division has a dedicated team focused on the EU-UK negotiations, led by a senior officer at Counsellor level. Within the IUKA Division, there is a Brexit-specific policy co-ordination function in place and there are teams focused on Northern Ireland and on wider British-Irish Relations; their duties include Brexit related issues.
For operational and service oriented units like the Passport Office and Consular service, there has been a marked increase in demand for passports and citizenship via foreign birth registration from applicants in Northern Ireland and in Britain. We have responded by recruiting over 230 temporary and fulltime clerical officers assigned to our Dublin, Cork and London operations.
Many business units of my Department at headquarters in Dublin are involved in some way as part of the response to the UK exit, for example, the Legal Division, the Trade Division and the Policy Planning Unit.
There is also an intra-Departmental senior management group focusing on issues relating to the UK exit, chaired by the Secretary General and comprising senior officials from across all relevant business units of the Department.
Overseas, additional posts dedicated to issues relating to the UK exit have been assigned to our Embassies in London, Berlin, and Paris as well as the Permanent Representation of Ireland to the European Union in Brussels, which has a unit dedicated to managing our response to this issue.
It is important to emphasise that our approach has not been merely to recruit or assign additional staff, but rather also to prioritise Brexit in the work of our entire network. The Department may require additional staff resources if it is deemed necessary to further augment our level of support across Government and across our network.
