Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 November 2018
1. Deputy Micheál Martin asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his visit to County Cavan on 12 October 2018; if he met businesses; and if they discussed the impact in addition to the uncertainty of Brexit. [43891/18]
View answer2. Deputy Brendan Howlin asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his visit to County Cavan on 12 October 2018; and the meetings he held in respect of Brexit. [45716/18]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 2 together.
I visited counties Cavan and Monaghan on Friday, 12 October, where I had several engagements.
In the morning, I visited the Cavan County Museum in Ballyjamesduff, which is really worth a visit and I would recommend it to anyone. I also visited the new autism unit in Bailieborough community school and Bailieborough courthouse.
In the afternoon, I visited Cootehill where I had the pleasure of turning the sod on the new Holy Family school, which is a special school. I spoke at the cross-border childcare conference in Emyvale, County Monaghan.
While I had no formal meetings with business people on this occasion, I met a wide variety of invited guests and members of the public at the events I attended. As people can imagine, given that Cavan and Monaghan are Border counties, Brexit was to the fore during my visit. The cross-border childcare conference afforded me the opportunity to engage with those attending on Brexit and how it may impact on their services and businesses.
I would have thought that the Taoiseach might have heard from more business people about their concern regarding the impact Brexit will have on them. Recent data from the Central Statistics Office suggest there is a noticeable slowdown in the Border region and that the devaluation of sterling has had a significant impact on small and medium enterprises, SMEs, there. There are many Brexit schemes but the combined take-up of these to date has been minuscule. Is the Taoiseach willing to set a specific target for the number of businesses receiving support in order that they might cope with the impact of Brexit? To date, all there has been is the announcement of amounts of money to be spent at some point in the future. Until we see specific targets for businesses directly helped, the delivery deficit is likely to be continually hidden behind the advertising campaigns which promise a lot but deliver little.
Last week, the Taoiseach became very defensive when I raised the Government's love of referring to things as "action plans". He even claimed the Government had delivered 200,000 jobs through the Action Plan for Jobs. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, reviewed the action plan and said it is not possible to isolate any specific figure of job creation under the plan. We do not need action plan for Brexit designed to help the Government claim credit for other people's work. We need hard targets for businesses directly helped through the schemes launched with such fanfare by the Minister. There needs to be a stronger correlation between the announcement and what is actually done. The vote is taking place in the House of Commons on 11 December and the draft withdrawal treaty is coming into far more focus. Most business and farming people on both sides of the Border support the withdrawal treaty. It is disappointing, therefore, that the DUP seems to be hardening its original stance on the draft withdrawal treaty following its conference at the weekend. Will the Taoiseach provide an update on the preparation of east-west arrangements for Dublin Airport following Brexit? Given that most goods entering the North come via Dublin Port, is there any further update on scoping and expansion to facilitate further checks if needed? Is the Government scoping the use of Rosslare Europort in order to ease any possible congestion and ensure the smooth transport of goods via truck, etc.?
It would be surprising if, when visiting the Border, any politician did not involve himself or herself in dialogues on Brexit. The Taoiseach said he did so with a variety of groups. Did he meet any representatives of workers, specifically unions organised on an all-island basis, to discuss their understanding of the implications of Brexit? Did the Taoiseach discuss the implications of a hard Brexit, which is now a very real prospect? Will he share his view on preparations for such an eventuality? We obviously have to prepare for that eventuality. It is hopefully not likely but it is certainly a distinct possibility.
This morning, we had easterly winds which closed Dublin Port. The immediate consequence of that was the blocking of the port tunnel and traffic chaos. That was the result of an hour's closure due to adverse winds. As an island nation, what specific logistical preparations are we making in the event of a disorderly departure from the European Union by Britain? What impact will it have on our potential imports or exports of goods?
Yesterday on "Morning Ireland" the Tánaiste stated that in the event of a no deal scenario things would be much more complicated, and we all know this is undoubtedly true. He went on to say there would be no hard border in such a scenario. Will the Taoiseach outline to the House what the Tánaiste meant by that and what steps can be taken to ensure that in a no deal scenario there would be no hard border?
The focus of this particular visit to Cavan and Monaghan was very much on education, disability and childcare as well as a visit to Cavan County Museum. I engage with business groups and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions regularly but not every day. It is good on occasion to have days where we focus just on education, childcare, disability, health or housing. The particular focus of this visit was education, disability and childcare.
We have not set particular targets for businesses accessing credit under the various Brexit loan schemes. We have decided not to do this for good reasons. There are a lot of businesses that do not want to borrow or increase their debt and this is a decision they are entitled to make. Many of them have paid off debts they built up over the recession period and they do not want to take on new debt. Some have their own reserves and they will use them rather than take on more debt. We want to make sure these low-cost loans are available to business but that is quite different from encouraging businesses to take on additional debt if they do not want to do so.
I meet businesses all the time that tell me they feel they are being unfairly criticised when we say they have not taken up offers of vouchers, Brexit assessments or loans because they have made an assessment themselves that Brexit will not affect them dramatically because they do not trade much or they only trade with particular countries. Sometimes they state they have made a decision to wait and see. They want to see how things will pan out over the coming weeks or months before taking action. We need to make sure the loan supports and information vouchers are available to business but we need to respect the fact that many businesses will decide they do not want to take up these supports because they do not trade with the UK, because they feel they have adequate reserves and finance or because they are already adequately prepared. We have to respect their autonomy and their right to make their own decisions about their own businesses in this regard.
We approved another memo at Cabinet today on contingency planning. We have planned for two things. These are the central case scenario, which is pretty much the deal that has now been made and the deal we hoped would be made, with a transition period, a single customs territory and backstop. We have also planned for a no deal hard Brexit scenario, which we do not think is likely but we must prepare for nonetheless. In many ways they are a graduation of the same contingency plan because the central case scenario requires one amount and the no deal scenario requires another amount of activity. This involved an update on recruitment and we are confident. We have an assurance from Revenue and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine that the necessary recruitment is under way. I cannot remember the exact figure with regard to Customs and Excise officials, but several hundred will be in place in March and the rest will be in place after that. We also examined what would be required in terms of physical infrastructure at Dublin Port, Dublin Airport and Rosslare Europort and how it can be provided. In Dublin Airport it would involve an upgrade to the customs and border services and at Rosslare Europort and Dublin Port it would involve physical infrastructure, such as parking areas for HGVs and examination stations. These preparations are very much under way.
I have no doubt we can be totally prepared for a Brexit with a deal because we have the transition period and we know what will happen if there is no deal. We will have a backstop. It will be impossible for any country to be fully prepared for a no deal cliff edge hard Brexit but we will be as prepared as we possibly can be.
