Mr. Chris Hazzard:

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. I thank the committee for the invitation to attend the meeting. On 23 June, 56% of voters in the North democratically expressed their wish to remain within the European Union. They did so because it was in their political, economic and social interest to do so. The unilateral decision by the British Government to withdraw from membership of the Union and drag the North of Ireland with it, without our consent, is both disastrous and profoundly undemocratic. I welcome the opportunity to engage with colleagues in the South given the economic position in which we find ourselves.

I will outline the work we have undertaken to date. My officials have been working to identify and consider the challenges, whether operational, regulatory or financial, our Department faces and will face in the future. That work has involved our engaging bilaterally with key sectoral stakeholders such as our ports and airports to help us better understand the wider implications Brexit may have for them as businesses. We have had several useful meetings with the relevant representative groups, including the Freight Transport Association and the British Ports Association, to hear their collective concerns. My officials met with colleagues from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport on 16 November in Belfast to discuss emerging issues. I am keen that this engagement should continue as we work through the process and the direction of travel on fundamentally common issues becomes clearer.

At this early stage, one of my main concerns is the loss of access to critical European funding. For my Department, the financial and operational implications of losing access to infrastructure funding programmes from Europe are significant. We have worked, as has the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, to raise the profile of some of our most significant projects within the European Commission, with the specific purpose of attracting co-financing. These include the York Street interchange, the Newry southern relief project and the Belfast transport hub. The cross-Border dimension of these projects adds weight to each application and provided us with a reasonable expectation of success in securing funding. Despite the circumstances we find ourselves in, I am very much committed to pursuing opportunities to access EU funding programmes between now and a possible UK exit from the Union.

There has been a good level of co-operation throughout Ireland - I mean between the Administrations in Dublin and Belfast - to support the securing of EU funding for cross-Border projects. We need to build on this activity and ensure that it continues into the future.

We have an opportunity to show a united front during negotiations in areas that would benefit both Administrations. In particular, we must lobby to retain a presence in EU transport infrastructure plans through continued participation in the trans-European transport network, TEN-T, programme and access to the Connecting Europe Facility or CEF funding mechanism. This activity would also help the South as the deconstruction of the North Sea-Mediterranean core network corridor would almost inevitably become further isolated in EU infrastructural terms.

I have a concern about access to the Single Market. If our access is heavily constricted or lost altogether, it will create problems for all sectors of the transport industry, including our ports, airports, road and rail infrastructure across the island. Sinn Féin strongly opposes the North being forced out of the EU. We believe that as part of the Brexit negotiations it is essential that we argue the case for a designated special status for the North within the European Union.

I thank the committee for the opportunity to attend here today. It has been a pleasure and I look forward to answering questions afterwards.