Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Drennan and Mr. Nolan, both of whom are true experts in the issues we want to address. I want to touch briefly on three areas. Mr. Nolan may feel free to interject as well as Mr. Drennan.

My first question is on Mr. Drennan's comments on the Windsor Framework, which we are all grappling with. I was in Brussels yesterday. Mr. Drennan makes a very relevant point, which is to separate the political from the commercial. In truth, we are so fixated on getting a political solution and on getting institutions in Northern Ireland up and running that we have been willing to be tolerant of commercial impacts on us. I do not think the full impacts have been fully teased out yet. This includes the Stormont break, on which I repeated asked questions yesterday as to whether there was a separation of rules or a disapplication of trade rules in Northern Ireland. What are the implications of that for the Single Market and for the Republic of Ireland, which has an open border to a market that was not applying Single Market rules? I think the expectation is that we will put this in, in the hope it will never be used but that is always dangerous.

My particular questions are on the post-Brexit situation. Some of the evidence we got from the work we did on the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, BIPA, from the hauliers on the UK side was that there was a significant dislodging of southern corridor and central corridor freight to the northern routes if the goods were destined for Northern Ireland. Goods, for example, from the south of England that would normally take the Rosslare ferry or even the Dublin ferries and then move north into Northern Ireland are now taking a much longer route. This is much less fuel efficient and much less environmentally efficient. Does Mr. Drennan think that is a permanent feature or will it now change under the new accords?

My second question will touch on the driver shortage issue. I do not think we should fixate on solving an employment issue with foreign labour as our preferred option or for that image to go out. I would be interested for a comment and Mr. Drennan might not have time to do it now but is he saying there are ways he could make it more attractive for Irish workers to be involved in driving in the haulage business in respect of terms and conditions? Does he have any propositions or proposals in that regard? As far as is practicable, we should be providing employment for Irish citizens who want to be involved in work in Ireland.

Mr. Drennan spoke of the reduction of sailings. A point made by the previous presentation we had was the lack of facility for hauliers because Rosslare has four UK sailings per day, but to two separate ports. This means there are only two sailing from Fishguard and two sailings from Pembroke. If you miss one, you might have to go to a different port. Is there an argument - and it is not a matter for us but I would be interested in hearing about it - to have one southern port, either Fishguard or Pembroke, and for the other to maybe concentrate on something else? Would that make that southern corridor route more efficient from a haulage perspective?

My final question is about something I saw this morning because I am an assiduous reader of my local paper. I saw that Mr. Drennan has made the front page of my local paper this morning regarding comments he made in relation to Rosslare Europort. The headline on the local paper was that Rosslare Europort risks squandering Brexit golden gift.