The Chamber of Commerce held a series of five workshops amid a ’high level of interest and concern’ about Brexit in the island’s business community.

Each workshop focused on different sectors of the economy and the Chamber of Commerce said they were ’positive’.

With less than a month to go until the scheduled leaving date there is still uncertainty over what is finally going to happen on Brexit

It is still unclear whether there will be a deal, no deal or indeed whether the UK will actually depart from the EU by the March 29 deadline.

Even so, the Chamber of Commerce went ahead with last week’s programme of fact-finding workshops and said they were positive.

Chamber’s chief executive Rebecca George said: ’The response to the workshops illustrates that there continues to be a high level of interest and concern about Brexit here in the island.’

And she sent this message to Chamber of Commerce members: ’Chamber will continue to work with its members in providing ongoing support in Brexit related matters.’

The workshops began with an event looking at the potential impact of Brexit on engineering, manufacturing and biomed.

On the same day there was a separate workshop with the retail sector.

Food processors and exporters followed along with construction and then the visitor and hospitality sectors.

All the workshops, which were open to Chamber members and non-members, began with an introduction from Mrs George.

They were followed by briefings about the latest Brexit-related developments from David Corlett, head of the Isle of Man Government’s Brexit team; Della Fletcher, executive director, external relations, Isle of Man Government; Steven Beevers, senior policy adviser/manager, Brexit, Department for Enterprise; and Sandra Skuzska, Customs and Excise. Each then featured a lively one-hour question and answer session with the panel along with representatives from each sector and industry being covered.

Mrs George thanked all of the contributors, panellists, guests and the event sponsor, MM&C. The series followed Chamber’s ’Brexit and Beyond’ event in January at the Comis Hotel, Mount Murray, which attracted 200 guests.