Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

When one considers the agricultural community voting against its best interests, considering the financial benefit of EU payments and then the Northern Ireland Assembly voting yesterday that they should not be taken as a special case - terminology and language being very important - it beggars belief that people are continuing to vote against their own best interests. I think the witnesses are right in what they say about the need to be creative in terms of our approach to this with Britain benefiting with a €10 billion trade surplus. They have a lot in terms of what we do for them and we must consider what needs to be done. It is hugely complex. I take the point about the meeting in the Europa hotel. What does victory look like when one leaves the EU? How does it get better? The point about Germany trading with China was well made. It is not the EU that is holding the UK back, that is one of the fallacies that was put out. The clear message from both Dr. Soares and Mr. Sheridan is that we need to be very creative on the solutions for what will be a very protracted problem.