Mr. Bertie Ahern:

I thank the Chairman and members for the invitation to come before the committee. I congratulate the committee on holding a series of sessions to discuss the implications of Brexit for Ireland. Throughout its history Seanad Éireann has always been to the forefront in discussing the most difficult political issues facing the country. Today is no exception. Brexit is the most serious challenge facing the country. We all know that the referendum result last year will have far-reaching consequences for Britain, the people living on the island of Ireland and the European Union. Brexit is also having consequences in a geopolitical context.

The transmission last week of the Article 50 letter by the British Government to the President of the European Council, Mr. Donald Tusk, will bring to an end in two years' time British membership of the European Union. The terms of Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty are very clear. Once a member state formally triggers the provisions of Article 50 it will ceases to be a member of the European Union after a period of two years. This timeframe can only be changed with the unanimous agreement of the remaining 27 EU member states. It is clear that both sides to the negotiations want to conclude the terms of the British withdrawal from the European Union within the two-year timeframe. The contracting parties to the negotiations also have to work out a framework that will govern the future relationship between Britain and the European Union and vice versa.

Consecutive Irish and British Governments have worked together for many years in the European Union in addressing key economic, social and political issues. In fact, applications to join what was then the European Economic Community, EEC, were submitted by the Irish and British Governments in 1961. Britain and Ireland formally joined the EEC as full members together in January 1973. It is clear that, although Ireland and Britain are moving on different paths, when it comes to our respective relations with the European Union, Britain will cease to be a member of the European Union in two years' time. According to a 2016 Eurobarometer poll, 77% of people living in the Republic of Ireland have a positive viewpoint on the future development of the European Union. That said, we must all be respectful of the democratic decision taken by the British people in the referendum held on 23 June last year in favour of Brexit.

Yes, we are living in unprecedented times. The European Union has never had to face such a challenge before that entails negotiating the departure of a country that has the second largest economy in Europe. That said, while we are in uncharted waters, it does not mean that the contracting parties to the negotiations cannot reach an agreement on the terms of the withdrawal of Britain from the European Union and put in place a framework governing the future relationship Britain will have with the European Union and vice versa. The challenges are very difficult but not insurmountable. We have to seek to address the issues that need to be tackled in as positive a manner as we possibly can. Mutual respect and a resolute determination to strike a deal must underpin the political negotiations. It is welcome that the tone of the language being used by both sides is somewhat more conciliatory than in the aftermath of the referendum in June last year. This is extremely important because inflammatory language is most unhelpful when governments are engaged in sensitive international negotiations. It is easier to dock a ship in calm waters than when there is a gale force wind blowing over its bow.

In a European context, I had the privilege of attending meetings of EU Heads of State and Government for 11 years. I was President of the European Council in 2004 when ten new countries acceded to the European Union. Between 1997 and 2008, I was involved in overseeing either the ratification or the negotiation of a number of European international agreements, including the Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon treaties. I was a signatory, as Minister for Finance, to the Maastricht treaty in 1992 which paved the way for the introduction of the single European currency. If I include my social affairs period, ECOFIN and the European Council, I was 18 years at negotiations in Europe. Securing agreement for the terms of all these treaties involved hard fought and painstaking negotiations. Agreement was secured with regard to the terms of these new policies and new treaties.

The foundation of the European Economic Community and the reunification of Germany required courageous leadership by the key negotiators involved. I will emphasise that the European Union has negotiated its way through complex political problems in the past. It can do so again with regard to the political issues of both the withdrawal of Britain from the European Union and agreeing the terms of the future relationship that Britain will have with the European Union and vice versa. Political leadership at the highest level in Europe and a will to succeed will have to be cornerstones of these Brexit negotiations if a final agreed solution is to be secured.

The European Union is built on a legal framework of different regulations and directives and a variety of EU treaties have vested the EU institutions with a number of direct powers and competences. These treaty-based legal provisions mean that countries that are either members of the EU or that seek to negotiate access to the marketplace in the European Union have legal obligations that must be complied with and which cover a range of different issues. Within that context, arguably the most difficult challenge over the next two years will be to agree a trade deal between Britain and the European Union. Without a trade deal, there will be no Brexit agreement as 44% of all British goods are sold into the European Union at this time and 16% of all EU products are exported into the British marketplace. The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, made it clear last week the underlying principles that will need to underpin any new trade agreement. The first is that any free trade agreement must be balanced, ambitious and wide-ranging but it cannot amount to participation in the Single Market or parts thereof. Second, a future European Union trade deal must ensure a level playing field in terms of competition and state aid and it must encompass safeguards against unfair competitive advantages. Third, preserving the integrity of the Single Market excludes participation based on a sector-by-sector approach. It is undoubtedly the case that if a trade deal is reached then a transitional period of a number of years will have be put in place post-March 2019 to allow any new trading arrangements to take effect between the EU and Britain. Business people need to be certain of the rules governing any trading environment. Both parties to these negotiations must be very cognisant of this fact at all times. The quicker the uncertainty can be removed from the Brexit process the better. Brexit is a disruptive process and it is incumbent on the key contracting parties to minimise the levels of disruption that any future changes will bring about to as great an extent as possible.

Any final agreement the British Government reaches with the European Union must enshrine two key elements that are of critical importance to the people living on the island of Ireland. First, people must be able to move freely between Britain and Ireland without restriction and in an unencumbered manner. Such a system of having free movement of people between our respective countries predates British and Irish membership of the European Union in 1973. Every day, 30,000 people cross the Border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Second, we must ensure that a common trading area between Ireland and Britain remains in place. Every week, €1 billion worth of trade is carried out between Britain and Ireland. Britain is Ireland’s largest trading partner in the world. Britain is Ireland’s number one food export destination, accounting for nearly 40% of all Irish food and drink exports that include prepared consumer goods, beef, poultry, sheep meat, seafood, horticulture and cereal products. Trade in services between our two countries is increasing in the fields of clean technology, electronics and the engineering sectors. Annual trade from the Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland exceeds €1.5 billion annually. Leading traded products include food, beverages, animal oils and manufactured goods. If any restrictions were to be put in place relating to the trade in goods and services between Ireland and Britain, it would have a negative economic outcome.

I welcome the recognition of Irish political concerns by the British Prime Minister Theresa May in the Article 50 letter. The letter states clearly some of the key objectives that must be achieved in the context of the forthcoming Brexit negotiations. They include that there can be no return of a hard border on the island of Ireland; the common travel area between Britain and Ireland must be maintained; the peace process must not be jeopardised; and the provisions of the Good Friday peace agreement must be upheld.

I also welcome the provisions of the draft EU negotiating paper on Brexit that was published last Friday. It recognises the need for flexible and creative solutions that aim to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland in support of the Irish peace process. The European Union Commission negotiator on Brexit, Michel Barnier, understands these problems very well in an Irish context. I worked with him very closely when he was the member of the European Commission with responsibility for regional affairs between the years 1999 and 2004. This was a period when both substantial EU regional and PEACE funding was secured to support the development of Northern Ireland and the Border region. Michel Barnier was the EU Regional Affairs Commissioner for a five-year period shortly after the enactment of the Good Friday peace agreement in 1998 and came to Ireland, North and South, many times during that period. Guy Verhofstadt, the former Belgian Prime Minister, is the European Parliament rapporteur on Brexit. He too supports a solution from these Brexit talks that will not diminish the Irish peace process in any shape or form.

The European Union has always been to the forefront in supporting the peace process on the island of Ireland. The European Union was a very early supporter of the International Fund for Ireland programme when it was set up in 1986. The European Union has financially backed different EU peace programmes that have been put in place in Ireland since the mid-1990s. There is no reason the European Union cannot continue to support the peace process in Ireland within the changing new political architecture of the European Union. The Irish peace process is being supported in a very concrete sense by countries around the world, including the United States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The European Union is a peace process in itself and stakeholders that support the European Union should do more to reiterate this important political point to the people of Europe as often as they can.

Between 2007 and 2013, and the last financial perspective, 9% of GDP in Northern Ireland was accounted for via EU financial transfers. Two thirds of this figure was EU support for the agriculture sector. EU financial support continues to play an important role in developing the economy of Northern Ireland and 87% of all the income for agriculture in Northern Ireland comes from EU sources. New policies will have to be implemented to substitute, replace or transitionally support a number of key EU funding instruments post-Brexit. That includes, for example, the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, the European territorial cross-border co-operation initiative and the EU Horizon 2020, research, innovation and science programme. As I said, 87% of financial support to the farmers of Northern Ireland comes from CAP. The present EU financial framework period that supports the aforementioned programmes runs, in this period, from now until 2020.

I believe that a new political and economic arrangement can be agreed between the European Union and Britain over the next two years but it will require resolute determination to succeed from both sides if a final agreement is to be reached. Mutual respect for one another and high levels of courage will have to be displayed by the contracting parties to these negotiations. No one should underestimate for one moment the very real challenges that will have to be overcome if an agreement is to be secured. As Oscar Wilde once recounted, "success is a science; if you get the conditions, you get the result."