Taoiseach to ‘beef up’ his department in wake of Brexit

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has told the Dáil he will be “beefing up” his department in the wake of Britain’s vote to leave the EU.

Mr Kenny said he would form a new Cabinet committee which he would chair “with principal Ministers to attend and those, if necessary, beyond that”.

The Taoiseach also said the Government planned to “strengthen the different missions we have abroad in Rome, London, Berlin, Paris and so on”.

He said extra staff would also be taken on within the relevant Government departments.

Speaking during Taoiseach’s Questions, Mr Kenny said some staff from his department would be moved to the Department of Foreign Affairs to have a more specific focus.

He would give TDs further detail of the changes "to deal with Brexit and its consequences and beefing up those things".

Advisory council

Green Party leader

Eamon Ryan

asked the Taoiseach to consider establishing an advisory council similar to that set up by Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon to bring in international, academic and other national experts outside the public service system. Such a council could advise the Government in its approach.

Labour leader Brendan Howlin agreed, and said he did not want to sound in any way critical "but many of the very fine civil servants we have engaged in these matters, who are some of the finest public servants in Europe, come from a mindset that is very Eurocentric".

“We need to broaden this debate now because we are in very changed times.”

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett asked if the Taoiseach thought there was a "supreme irony and hypocrisy in the fact that it is the EU which claims it supports the free movement of people which might be the obstacle in the way of the free movement of people between Britain and Ireland".

Timeline

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin had called for article 50, the measure Britain will use to begin discussions on its EU exit, to be triggered sooner rather than later. He said everyone had accepted the September timeline as being reasonable to given the British government time to arrive at its basic position.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams pointed to remarks by new British prime minister Theresa May that she would not consider triggering article 50 until next year.

He said “this is vitally important in that as prime minister she is equal co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement”.

Mr Adams was concerned at her wish to scrap the Human Rights Act which was a fundamental cornerstone of the agreement.

Mr Kenny told Opposition leaders that a “large degree of uncertainty persists on the UK side in regard to a number of key issues”.

He said they would have to wait and see first what the British wanted. “Do they want a Norwegian, Swiss, Canadian or Singaporean strategy? What is the intent of the new prime minister? I hope to be able to get an early meeting with her to discuss some of this.”