Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the Ceann Comhairle knows, everything is good about Monaghan and its neighbouring counties.

I join the Ceann Comhairle and colleagues in extending a warm welcome to Mr. Verhofstadt. I am sure we will find his address and interaction with us today very useful and beneficial. As he will have seen and heard during his visits to Belfast, Monaghan and Dublin, Brexit impacts on every policy area across this island and will have a knock-on effect on the lives of citizens across the European Union and beyond.

Ireland, as Mr. Verhofstadt knows, stands to be significantly and disproportionately affected. I speak for the members of our committee when I tell him that we, as public representatives, are greatly concerned at the negative domestic impact Brexit will have on the island of Ireland. I know from listening to what he has said in recent months that he is very aware of and interested in our concerns, a fact demonstrated by his visit, North and South, yesterday and today.

As our committee looks outward in its work, I will focus my remarks on how Brexit impacts on the external environment, however as a Deputy for two Border counties, one of which Mr. Verhofstadt visited yesterday, it would be remiss of me not to remind him of the great damage the resurrection of a border would have on the communities I represent here in the national Parliament. I welcome his comments made yesterday and hope he can expand on them later.

Much of the progress made in the improved Irish-British relations over the past 25 years was due in no small part to our common EU membership. I recall, from my own time as a Minister being told that Irish and British officials were meeting approximately 26 times per day in Brussels. The loss of this high level of ongoing and important interactions with our nearest neighbour and close ally is deeply regrettable. Its loss will be keenly felt. We will be doing our utmost to compensate as best we can for that loss of engagement.

As Mr. Verhofstadt knows, Ireland is militarily neutral but that does mean that we in Ireland stand aside when it comes to promoting peace and development through the UN, the European Union and our own bilateral actions - far from it. We have a long, proud and strong record in peace support and humanitarian operations via our Defence Forces. At present, 600 members of the Defence Forces are serving on UN-mandated missions across the globe. Given our policy remit for both foreign affairs and defence, our committee knows and recognises the global challenges and security threats we face, both within the EU and in the EU's neighbourhood. For those reasons we recognise a good and strong relationship with the Britain on foreign policy, security and defence is essential and is in all our interests. For those reasons, we welcome last week's publication by the British Government of a paper on foreign policy, defence and development, and we are pleased to see the British Government outline its willingness and desire to continue to have a close partnership with the EU on foreign, defence, security and development issues. We note that Britain proposes the exchange of foreign and security policy experts, military personnel and the exchange of classified information to support external actions. Ongoing co-operation is much needed and is common sense in these very fraught times for Europe and neighbouring areas as well.

I wish to refer specifically to development co-operation and the impact Brexit may have on the world's poorest people whose voices are often unheard in these debates. While Brexit may be happening far from the poorest countries in the world, they also stand to be adversely affected. It is unknown what will become of the significant aid contributions Britain makes both to the European Development Fund - at present it contributes 15% of the fund, amounting to €4.48 billion, and 13% of the total of the aid portion of the EU's general budget for 2016, or €1.23 billion. Loss of that substantial British funding would have huge ramifications for the many programmes in the poorest regions of the world which depend so heavily on it. The committee hopes a solution will be found that will allow and encourage Britain to continue to contribute. I believe there are precedents for that with Switzerland and Norway participating in EU-managed trust funds.

Brexit will result in the loss of an important, influential and respected voice on the shaping of EU development policy from around the EU table. Our committee will encourage the Government to step up and play its part in filling those gaps as much as possible. There is also the significant concern that developing countries could lose their duty free, quota free access to British markets, as is currently provided for under EU agreements.

More generally, we are concerned about the Paris Accord and climate action. All those issues must be taken into account in the complex negotiations that lie ahead. I have no doubt the European Parliament will ensure those concerns are brought to the fore in his engagements with the Council and the Commission. As Mr. Verhofstadt said, our island has been transformed since 1998. We cannot countenance any agreement that would set us back or hinder the necessary progress for the further development of all of this island. To echo Mr. Verhofstadt, it would be absolutely absurd to put obstacles in the way of the 30,000 people who cross the Border on a daily basis going about their business.