Announcing the figures, the Tánaiste said:
“Every Government Department, our Embassy network and all our State Agencies have contributed to the enormous effort that has gone into responding to the challenges posed by the UK’s exit from the European Union. Beyond the 738 high level engagements and the 433 stakeholder consultations during 2017, there was a large number of other formal and informal contacts with international and domestic partners.
"I want to pay tribute to the work of my colleagues in Government and to our officials at home and around the world for their extraordinary work to advance Ireland’s interests in the negotiations. We are also hugely grateful to all other EU Member States, to President Tusk, President Juncker and Michel Barnier, and to Guy Verhofstadt and the European Parliament, for their steadfast support and solidarity.
We can be proud of what we accomplished in phase one on the negotiations - we achieved the goals we set out, including maintenance of the Common Travel Area, protection of the Good Friday Agreement in all its parts and the gains of the peace process, including guarantees on avoiding a hard border. As we move into phase two where we will be consolidating these gains while also seeking agreement on transitional arrangements and the framework for the future EU-UK relationship, we will be reliant on our resourcefulness, vigour and dynamism as well as the solidarity of our partners to achieve the best possible outcome for the island of Ireland, our citizens and our economy.”
Following the announcement, Minister of State for European Affairs, Helen McEntee T.D. said,