Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. It has been very enlightening to listen to the witnesses. It is extremely important that the clarity of their thoughts and the facts they are giving us are in the public domain. They will certainly influence my thinking. The message I am getting and what I really understand is how important this matter is and how adversely it will impact on their lives and ours. The difficulty is finding the political solution to the problem. The latter is our job; not that of the witnesses. There must be stability in the North and there has to be an Administration that is seeking to reach a consensus and that meet the witnesses face to face and listen to their views. It does not make sense to be going into this dark night, which Brexit is, if there is not an Administration in the North and if there is not consensus. We are members of different bodies and we are parties to the Good Friday Agreement. Some of us are members of the North-South Interparliamentary Association and some of us are members of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. I return to Dr. McDonnell's point. Where is the plan? We have not really come up with a good enough answer to that yet. Part of the answer lies in an economic agreement between the North and South on which we can build on through people who are not in this Chamber and who have never attended here, but who attend meetings of other bodies. Unless we reach that stage, we will not succeed in having the least impactful Brexit. We are facing the alternative.

We must be able to reach out to the other people in our communities, particularly in the North, who do not participate in this debate. If their voice is not heard here, our voice will not be heard where their voices are strong. Their voice is the strongest. It is not a matter for us or the witnesses. They are the guarantors of the current British Government. Their votes are hugely impactful on its policy, so we need them more than we ever needed them to step forward with the same argument as the witnesses are making. I found it very useful and informative and I would like to be involved, if possible, in any future meetings or events that the witnesses intend to hold along the Border. I would be very happy to attend.