Dr. Peter Rigney:

I wish to make a number of points about Senator Terry Leyden's comments. First, I agree that this is increasingly becoming a yawning issue in Brussels. The view among some members states is, "The UK is gone; Godspeed to it and we will get on with our business." I was at a meeting of the executive of the European Trade Union Confederation, ETUC, approximately three months before the vote took place in Britain. A motion was brought forward to try to be helpful to the pro-Remain position of the Trades Union Congress, TUC. Certain large member states which shall remain nameless were not exactly helpful and I had to row in and point out that we needed support for the motion, word for word. Incidentally, I subsequently regretted the wording as almost every use of the phrases "Great Britain" and "United Kingdom" was incorrect. In any case, let us not underestimate the number of people on the European mainland who are utterly indifferent to the departure of the other island. However - this is important - bad things can happen, can happen very quickly and have unintended consequences.

In Senator Terry Leyden's county of Roscommon there were coalmines that were thriving in the period from 1940 to 1945. Suddenly, against all the odds and the written assurances of the Secretary of the Department of Supplies who was also named Leyden, the British decided to cut off exports of quality coal. We had an existential crisis. Some 82% of our natural gas comes down a pipeline through Scotland. We have a common electricity market with Northern Ireland. We assume and hope no bad things will happen, but assumptions and hope are not enough to guard the well-being of citizens.