Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the ambassador and thank him for his interesting address. We all recognise the importance of the time that lies ahead. I think we are all committed to ensuring that we use that time extremely well as we approach the decisions that have to be taken cautiously and with great care to ensure that we do not damage each other's future, the future of the European Union, the UK-Ireland relationship and the Northern Ireland peace process, on which we have already set out our priorities. That is not just an emotional response; it is practical also. The practicality of having a borderless island of Ireland in recent years has been an experience we did not have before and it has worked extremely well. Trade on both parts of the island has progressed immeasurably, business people on both sides of the frontier have gained the benefits of that borderless island to which I refer. There is more to come of much greater potential than has been seen before. Later today, I go to one of our universities to talk on the same subject and, in the next week, we will have people from Northern Ireland addressing a similar debate.

At this stage, we should try to identity the issues in respect of we have something in common, both with the EU and with our colleagues in the UK, and emphasise them rather than emphasising the differences. We know what the differences and difficulties are going to be. We know that in future we will require a relationship between Ireland and the UK and between the UK and the EU, on which we will have a negotiating position from inside the EU. If we identify and set aside the issues that are going to be most contentious and try to address the common areas for a start, we will make progress. Nothing succeeds like success. Progress will be achieved on the easier rather than on the more difficult issues and will allow us to show results.

We need to ensure we are not seen to intimidate any of the people of Northern Ireland or to coerce them into a situation that might seem to our advantage now. It is to their advantage and our advantage to ensure that we progress as we have for the past number of years with that borderless island of Ireland.

I foresee difficulties arising in respect of the customs union and the common travel area. This matter is not beyond resolution, however, and I think it can be done once the negotiators who have an interest in resolving the problems recognise that it is attainable. Of course, people will raise various red flags in the next 12 months, identifying issues which may seem fundamental to many countries throughout the EU. However, nobody in the EU should avail of this process in order to set aside the ideals on which the Union was first founded. It would be a great tragedy if that were to happen and would be an even greater tragedy if it were to become acceptable among any of the EU member states, including Ireland, or in the UK. We would then find ourselves sliding into an abyss of uncertainty, doubt and suspicion. Things have an unfortunate habit of being triggered in such a way as to make life extremely difficult. We do not want to go back to 1930s thinking, whereby nationalism came to the fore across Europe, and we all know what happened.

I hope that in the next number of months we will both be in a position to establish those points that we see as most important, to have them embedded in the detail of what will be agreed from here on and to allow the positive rather than the negative to prevail.