The Fianna Fáil leader has said that the Government is well behind where it should be when it comes to preparations for a no-deal Brexit.
Speaking at the Killarney Economic Forum, Micheál Martin said that there had been no allocation of money for businesses that will be impacted by a hard Brexit.
He also said that there was a lack of basic information from Government that all segments of society need to base their own preparations on.
"On four occasions the Government has said it is stepping up Brexit preparations. Had this been true we would not have to be seeking basic information from them," Mr Martin said.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
He was particularly critical of the Government’s preparation of legislation needed to cope with a no-deal Brexit, and said nobody has seen any draft legislation.
"We saw a brief paragraph last Tuesday. We have been promised an outline draft next week.
"But if this is to be sound legislation we need to get more people involved, and we will be proposing that different sections [of the bill] will go to different sectoral committees in the Oireachtas", he said.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Mr Martin also called on the Government to publish any analysis it has done on the economic and fiscal impact of a no-deal Brexit.
"It’s not good enough that details of no-deal fiscal scenarios are not public. The Parliamentary Budget Office has identified that a no-deal Brexit will put a hole in the budget.
"In the light of this, it’s not credible to claim there will be €3bn available for tax cuts."
He said the Government needs to put more information into the public domain, to build not just a political consensus, but a national consensus on how Brexit is handled, particularly a no-deal Brexit.
Onus on Westminster to find Brexit solutions - Varadkar
More Brexit stories
