Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 March 2017
176. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if the particular challenges facing business and enterprise in the Border region, which are heavily or totally dependent on exports to the sterling area, will be considered in the context of the all-island civic dialogue on Brexit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12614/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe inaugural plenary meeting of the All-Island Civic Dialogue took place on 2 November 2016. As a direct follow-up to this, to reflect on the main issues raised, the Government organised a series of fourteen sector-specific events which have been hosted by Ministers in a range of locations across the country. A number of those events were held in border areas. The second plenary meeting of the All-Island Civic Dialogue, which took place on 17 February 2017, brought together the work from the sectoral dialogue meetings and discussed further the preparations for Ireland’s response to Brexit. A report bringing together the key themes of the sectoral dialogues, along with more information about the individual events and the two plenary sessions, is available on merrionstreet.ie and may be of interest to the Deputy.
The Civic Dialogue has proven useful for informing preparations for negotiations and outputs from all sixteen Dialogue events so far have been fed directly to the Cabinet Committee on Brexit, chaired by Taoiseach. The meetings have been valuable opportunities for Ministers to engage directly with stakeholders on the implications of the Brexit process for their sector. Over 1100 industry and civic society representatives have participated in the meetings and many compelling and constructive discussions have been held around the implications for the border regions. The Civic Dialogue will continue to inform the process ahead and the Government is considering the best way through which to continue the discussions. The response to Brexit requires a cross-Government response. This is coordinated across Government, being led by the Department of An Taoiseach in close partnership with my own Department. Within this framework, each individual Government Department is taking forward preparations for negotiations in the specific areas under their remit.
In particular, I am informed by my colleague, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation that, in order to help address the specific issue raised by the Deputy, additional resources have been provided to InterTrade Ireland, the Cross Border Body which has responsibility for developing Cross Border Trade, in order to enable that Body to provide additional services and support to such companies.
The Government is very conscious of the specific challenges facing businesses in the border region who export to Northern Ireland, and will continue to respond to them in any way we can.
