Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Bergin should please forgive me for being late as I was attending another meeting. I am just going through the written submission he made. I was in Brussels last week where we spoke about the future of Europe.

I was mindful of the fact that a youth group had appeared before the committee some weeks earlier. Their focus was on social rights, a European Union that would move slightly away from an over-concentration on funds, banking and the like towards protecting citizens' rights. Bearing this in mind, the European Union was not kind to Ireland or Greece during the recent banking crisis. We could argue all sides of what did and did not go wrong. Recklessness on all sides led to the collapse of banks all around Europe. However, I believe the European Union was not very helpful to Ireland. Ultimately, we have pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps and, with due respect to the Government, it has done a good job. We are coming back towards full employment, which is to be cherished.

We talk about price stability. One of the issues that concerns me greatly about the European Union is that we appear to be able to arrange a single market for items such as beef or milk, but we cannot do so for the drugs industry. There is a marked difference in what I pay for my tablets in Dublin and what I would pay for them is Spain. I know people who take what they call their drugs holiday. They bring their prescription to, say, the Canary Islands and bring back a year's supply of the drugs they use. The Single Market is failing in that regard as we have not brought all industries within it. We must work towards achieving that objective. Given the size of the European market, the European Union should negotiate with the major pharmaceutical companies, rather than Ireland, Portugal, Spain and the other member states doing so individually.

As we approach Brexit there is much talk about hard and soft borders and whether Britain will leave with or without an agreement. There are approximately 1.5 million people living in the northern part of this island who are entitled to dual citizenship, Irish citizenship or British citizenship. They can choose which of them they want to have. There is the Good Friday Agreement, every aspect of which protects all of the things that concern us. It protects trade, North and South; the movement of people, rights and access to the European Court of Justice. When we talk about negotiating with Mrs. May through the European Union, we should hold firm to the Good Friday Agreement as being the bottom line, with anything outside it being considered unacceptable to Ireland. Anything outside it will simply mean that the European Union cannot facilitate an agreement in that regard. There is a major vacuum in the political system in Northern Ireland. The politicians need to get their act together and represent their communities. In recent days I have seen articles in the newspapers speculating to the effect that perhaps we might park the Northern Ireland issue, move on to dealing with the trade talks and address the Northern Ireland issue somewhere in them. My view is that unless we solve the Northern Ireland problem before we enter the trade talks, there should not be a deal with the United Kingdom. It is as simple as that.

My next point relates to workers' rights. I am glad that the European Union is taking a position in moving towards the protection of workers' rights. Perhaps there should not be a single hourly rate for the same job in different countries, but if one is working in Ireland, irrespective of one's geographical point of origin, one should be paid the same rate for the job in Ireland as an Irish citizen would be paid.

My final point relates to those us involved in politics. When we negotiate something in Brussels with the European Union that we do not particularly like to pass on to the public, we bring it home and say Brussels has told us that we have to do it. We must get away from that approach. We must start to take responsibility for the negotiations we enter into and the agreements we bring home. Irrespective of which party is in power, it must be a case of saying, "We went to the European Union; we had meetings and negotiated; and this is the outcome which we have accepted." In that way the body politic in Ireland would be taking responsibility for it. We should stop trying to push everything towards the Commission which need not necessarily dictate to us.

I thank Dr. Rigney for his time and again apologise for being late.