As the Irish Government released a wide range of emergency laws that will be enacted in the event of a no-deal Brexit, Fermanagh and Omagh District Council (FODC) are unable to provide any specific detail on contingency plans they have in place for Brexit.

With Brexit just over a month away, agencies are putting into place plans in an attempt to avoid as much disruption to services as possible.

However, when asked about contingency plans for this Council area, FODC was unable to provide any information on their own plans for Brexit.

In response to the request, a Council spokesperson said, “As part of general civil contingency arrangements across Northern Ireland, there are multi-agency emergency planning structures in place, of which Councils are one part and it has been indicated that these will be utilised as part of the Brexit planning. There is no further information available at this stage.”

The Omnibus Bill, which will be fast-tracked through the Oireachtas parliament in Dublin, is designed to support businesses and jobs impacted by a no-deal and secure ongoing access to essential services and products across the Irish border.

The huge suite of proposed legislation in the Republic, which will only become law if the UK leaves on March 29 without a deal, was published as the EU Commission confirmed it was relaxing certain state aid regulations in preparation for Brexit - a move that will give the government in Dublin more latitude to offer support to farms and other affected businesses.

The proposed laws cover a wide range of areas and focuses on protecting Irish citizens’ rights, supporting businesses and jobs, healthcare, transport, education and energy.

The Bill will be debated in the Dail next week and then in committees the following week, before being debated in the upper chamber, the Seanad.

President Michael D. Higgins will sign it into law if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

The Department of Health does not envisage there to be any major disruption between cross Border services after Brexit.

In the past patients in the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) have been transferred to hospitals in the Republic of Ireland for further treatment.

A Departmental spokesperson said: “The Department has been actively involved in planning for Brexit. It is not envisaged that any major disruption to cross Border health and social care services will happen. However, appropriate business continuity, preventative and contingency measures are under active consideration by the Department. The delivery of our health and social care service to the public is our number one priority.

“The Department’s EU exit priorities include maintaining cross Border collaboration and access to care, such as the all-island Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) Network and the North West Cancer Centre (NWCC) at Altnagelvin, which have been agreed and delivered through the NSMC structures established under the Good Friday Agreement. These two initiatives demonstrate the clear benefits of cross Border collaboration in healthcare in meeting population health needs, improving access to care and patient outcomes in ways that exceed the respective capacity of each jurisdiction.

“The Department will continue to monitor the outcome of the UK Government’s EU Exit negotiations and shall discuss any potential impact on cross Border acute services with DHSC and the Department of Health (RoI) through our existing joint oversight arrangements,” said the spokesperson.