Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As has been said, I welcome His Excellency and I congratulate him on his ambassadorial role. I wish his country very well with the EU Council Presidency I support what my colleagues have said on the issues. We held some discussion about Brexit before the ambassador came to the committee today, something which will undoubtedly be the predominant issue for Ireland. There has been talk at the committee about the democratic deficit and that unity and optimism are very difficult to achieve because of narrow populism and people's human nature which can be selfish. I will not go into what we thought about the British decision, even though it was narrowly achieved, but it is the dominant matter for us. We would hope for the support of the smaller countries and particularly of Slovakia as the President of the EU Council, even though I do not believe it will arise for quite a long time and this uncertainty will continue. Britain has declared that it will not invoke Article 50 for quite some time, maybe even not for a few years.

There are three main issues for Ireland. We do not want a hard Border in our country because of the free movement of our people North and South and our peace process, as Deputy Haughey has said. All the arrangements Ireland has predate not just the European Union but also the EEC. I hope there will be agreement on that matter. Our trade links with Britain mean the biggest difficulty for Ireland will be achieving something that is as close to the Single Market for Britain as is possible. To achieve that they might have to accept a quota on the migratory front which they do not seem to want to accept. There are a lot of difficulties and there is no point in getting into them today. We wish the ambassador very well and hope for his support when it will matter and count.