Tánaiste Simon Coveney to detail plan for Brexit readiness

Tánaiste Simon Coveney will today inform Cabinet about a nationwide awareness campaign and plans to make businesses Brexit-ready.

Tánaiste Simon Coveney to detail plan for Brexit readiness

Tánaiste Simon Coveney will today inform Cabinet about a nationwide awareness campaign and plans to make businesses Brexit-ready.

Four largescale meetings will be held in the weeks ahead, while radio, TV, and digital advertising will now be ramped up in preparations for Britain’s exit from the EU next March and how this will impact on communities here.

One of the biggest awareness meetings will be held in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Cork, on October 5, where businesses can avail of advise from Revenue, Enterprise Ireland and Bord Bia among agencies about Brexit. Another three similar largescale awareness events are planned for Galway, Monaghan, and Dublin.

Mr Coveney will relay the details as part of contingency planning for Brexit. Cabinet will also discuss an update on commitments to hire an extra 1,000 customs and veterinary officers, in line with pledges already given by the government at its Derrynane, Co Kerry, meeting in July. It is expected that Mr Coveney will seek approval on hiring 450 inspectors for ports and airports, as part of the first phase of hiring extra officers.

Mr Coveney also said yesterday that Britain was not contemplating using technology on the island of Ireland to overcome border problems.

Instead, he told RTE: “Whether technology can help east-west trade is a different question to make the checks as simple and as de-dramatized as possible but that is a matter for the negotiating teams.

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said earlier this month that he was willing to consider new ways to solve the Irish border issue, including technical checks on vessels or in ports outside Ireland.

Tensions over Brexit will likely increase in the weeks ahead. EU leaders will meet informally and discuss Brexit in Salzburg, Austria, this Thursday. There are doubts though whether conditions and agreement can be reached for Britain’s withdrawal deal next month, ahead of Brexit next March.

British prime minister Theresa May has told the BBC that British parliamentarians will have a choice between her proposed deal with the EU — or no deal at all. She was also critical of a plan by Brexiteers to overcome the Irish border concerns, saying it would create a “hard border 20km inside Ireland”.

Ms May insisted that any system of checks, as advocated by Tory Brexiteers, was “still a hard border”.

Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson had said attempts to resolve the issue so far were a “constitutional abomination”.

Ms May said that if the British parliament did not ratify her so-called Chequers plan that she thought that “the alternative to that will be having no deal”.

Elsewhere, the Tánaiste will fly to Brussels later today to meet Mr Barnier for further talks over Brexit.

The issue of avoiding a hard border in Ireland is now the main stumbling block to agreeing a deal in October. Pressure is expected to mount on Irish officials to tweak or row back on the so-called backstop and the stance adopted by the government. However, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe yesterday reiterated that there was still unflinching support from the EU and Brussels over Brexit.

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