Published on 

All Island Civic Dialogue: 5th Plenary

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Simon Coveney today co-host the fifth plenary session of the All Island Civic Dialogue in Dublin Castle. The event builds on the previous plenary sessions, as well as over twenty sectoral dialogues that have taken place across the country.

The fifth plenary session will be chaired by Tom Arnold, and will feature updates from the government, contributions from political parties, as well as discussions on People, Citizens and Rights and Business Preparations.

Speaking in advance of the event, the Tánaiste said:

This is an opportune time to host another plenary session of the All Island Civic Dialogue. There have been many significant developments since our last plenary session in April 2018, including the agreement of the Withdrawal Agreement between the EU and UK Government. 

Despite this, uncertainty over Brexit persists, and I welcome the chance to provide an update on the work that Government has undertaken to prepare for all possible outcomes, and to listen to the concerns from representative groups across society, North and South.

We are all deeply aware of the potentially profound political, social, economic and trade impacts of a no deal Brexit. The Government is taking very clear steps to mitigate these impacts and has stepped up its preparations for Brexit across Government, including for a no deal Brexit.

Minister of State for European Affairs Helen McEntee will participate in the panel discussion on Business Preparations.

Minister McEntee said:

Engagement with stakeholders is an important pillar of the Government’s Brexit response. The Dialogue has been complemented by the recent Getting Ireland Brexit Ready programme of events held across the country, and allows us to hear from those most impacted by Brexit and feed this back into our ongoing planning.

The plenary session will be shown live on RTE News Now, the RTE Player and www.dfa.ie