Tag Archives: Brexit

MINISTER for Employment and Small Business, Pat Breen is in Estonia today (Monday) for a series of bilateral meetings. These meetings form part of an ongoing programme of engagement by Irish government ministers with EU member states in an effort to build awareness of the unique impacts of Brexit on Ireland and to hear fellow Member state views regarding Brexit. To date there have been over 400 engagements undertaken by the Irish Government with remaining EU member states and the EU institutions regarding Brexit. Mr Breen’s schedule includes meetings with Ms Urve Palo, the Estonian Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology, and Jevgeni Ossinovski, the Minister for Health and Labour.

MINISTER for Employment and Small Business, Pat Breen is in Estonia today (Monday) for a series of bilateral meetings. These meetings form part of an ongoing programme of engagement by Irish government ministers with EU member states in an effort to build awareness of the unique impacts of Brexit on Ireland and to hear fellow Member state views regarding Brexit. To date there have been over 400 engagements undertaken by the Irish Government with remaining EU member states and the EU institutions regarding Brexit. Mr Breen’s schedule includes meetings with Ms Urve Palo, the Estonian Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology, and Jevgeni Ossinovski, the Minister for Health and Labour.

MINISTER for Employment and Small Business, Pat Breen is in Estonia today (Monday) for a series of bilateral meetings. These meetings form part of an ongoing programme of engagement by Irish government ministers with EU member states in an effort to build awareness of the unique impacts of Brexit on Ireland and to hear fellow Member state views regarding Brexit. To date there have been over 400 engagements undertaken by the Irish Government with remaining EU member states and the EU institutions regarding Brexit. Mr Breen’s schedule includes meetings with Ms Urve Palo, the Estonian Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology, and Jevgeni Ossinovski, the Minister for Health and Labour.

Minister for Employment and Small Business, Pat Breen TD travelled to Hungary this week  for a series of bilateral meetings with his EU counterparts. These meetings form part of an ongoing programme of engagement by Irish government Ministers with EU Member States in an effort to build awareness of the unique impacts of Brexit on Ireland and to hear fellow Member State views regarding Brexit. To date there has been over 400 engagements undertaken by the Irish Government with remaining EU member states and the EU institutions regarding Brexit. During the course of the Minister’s two- day visit to Hungary, he met with the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mr Lázsló Szabó, State Secretary for EU Affairs, Szabolcs Takács, and State Secretary at the Ministry of National Economy, Mr István Lepsényi. Minister Breen used these meetings to set out the significance of the impact on Ireland of the UK’s departure from the EU, and conveyed the unique nature …

The Small Firms Association (SFA) has, following the triggering of Article 50 by the British Government, published a toolkit for small businesses to help them to practically prepare for Brexit. Sue O’Neill, SFA chair, commented, “Whilst many factors are outside our control, it is important for each small business to assign senior management responsibility to assessing the impact on their own business, and developing contingency plans for likely impacts. Companies should pay particular focus to assessing the potential impacts of currency movements, along with supply chain, commercial contracts, finance and funding and workforce considerations. They should also reassess the impact on technology, in particular issues around data sharing, likely changes to regulation and market access, and change their own operating structures accordingly.” Ms O’Neill emphasised the singular impacts of Brexit on Ireland, over and above other EU members states, and called on the EU Commission to prioritise these concerns in their negotiating strategy. “The UK is a key marketplace for …

Speaking after the UK triggered Article 50, Food Drink Ireland (FDI), the Ibec group representing the food and drink sector, today (Wednesday) called for agri-food to be a top priority for the Irish Government in the forthcoming negotiations. Paul Kelly, director of Food Drink Ireland, said, “The agri-food sector exports €4.1bn of food and drink to the UK and accounts for 43,000 Irish jobs, Agri-food is the Irish sector most exposed to trade disruption, and the Irish Government must do all within its control to ensure minimum impact to the free flow of goods. Discussions on the future EU-UK relationship must be commenced early in the negotiating process and must ensure: Free and unfettered access to the UK market for Irish business. An agreement that takes account of the special case of the all-island economy, ensuring that the highly integrated supply chains can continue to operate with free movement of goods and services, Transitional arrangements, of sufficient length, for businesses …

Retail Excellence, the largest retail industry representative body, has welcomed the 3.3% annualised increase in value in retail sales. Today (Tuesday) the Central Statistics Office (CSO) published its February 2017 retail sales index, which showed that, although the volume of non-motor retail sales rose by 1.2% compared to January 2017, the value of these annualised sales increased by 3.3%. Lorraine Higgins, of Retail Excellence, said, “We welcome this figure and the upward trend but would warn against being too optimistic. We have been contacted by many members in recent days who are experiencing very negative trading conditions. Some retailers are reporting like for like declines of upwards of 30% against March 2016”. “It is clear that consumer sentiment has been negatively impacted due to concerns about the impact of Brexit. The primary income in over 100,000 homes comes from a company which is dependent of export to the UK market (agri, food, drink). We also believe that there has been …

Clare holiday makers and those planning any trip abroad, have been advised to apply for a passport well in advance of travel. Minister for Employment and Small Business Pat Breen said, “I have had numerous calls to my constituency office in Ennis from people who are waiting weeks for a new passport, with many fearing they will not have their passport returned in time to travel. My advice therefore is to apply for your passport as early as possible.” “However, if you are travelling for business, even personal business, and require a passport within 15 to 20 days it is advisable to avail of the Passport Appointments Service rather than the Passport Express System,” he said. There has been an unprecedented number of applications for Irish passports since the vote on Brexit. According to figures revealed by the Department of Foreign Affairs there has been a 72% increase in applications from Northern Ireland and a 70% increase from Great Britain …