Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Commissioner is very welcome. I was going to ask whether she has seen much of Ireland but she indicated in her opening statement that this is her first visit. If she had a chance to travel around the place, she would have seen that infrastructure, right across the island, is in dire need of investment. The rail network, for example, requires an input of €500 million in the next five years. The level of under-investment in our national rail network is so dire that serious safety concerns are being raised. The motorway network is incomplete and regional and secondary roads need an investment of €3 billion just to bring them up to a steady condition. I expect and hope the Commissioner will accept that, in the main, it is EU fiscal rules that are preventing us from investing in our infrastructure. With Brexit coming down the tracks in 18 months, many sectors right across the island require significant investment.

The Commissioner referred to the usefulness of public private partnerships. I respectfully disagree that such arrangements facilitate the efficient delivery of infrastructure. In fact, they are more expensive in the long run because they require a greater investment on the part of the State. PPPs are popular with right-wing Governments in this country because they allow them to keep spending off the balance sheet. The reality, however, is that they ultimately are more expensive for the State and place a burden on taxpayers by way of the additional taxes they require to be levied in order to compensate the Exchequer. The contracts entered into under these arrangements leave a lot to be desired, with private companies being compensated at every turn for contracts lasting 30 years.

In regard to Brexit, I am from the Border county of Louth and we will not accept any return to a physical hard border. We are looking to the European Union to support us in this matter because the Brits do not know what they are doing. They are going from crisis to crisis with no comprehension of what is ahead. We hope and expect the European Union will recognise that Ireland needs a special designated status to protect it from the impact of Brexit. Has the Commissioner or her colleagues given consideration to loosening up the fiscal rules to allow us to invest, in the context of our unique position with respect to Brexit? What is the status of existing agreements to address the cross-Border infrastructural deficit? Will the Commissioner give a commitment to honour those agreements? What, if any, work has been done in her office on this issue and will she help us to deliver the investment necessary to honour those cross-Border initiatives, which include the A5 road project and the Narrow Water Bridge project. These are all vital infrastructural developments and an integral part of the agreements that were delivered following on from the Good Friday Agreement.

Has the Commissioner given any consideration to the requirement for further investment in Irish ports and airports in the context of the EU directive regarding state rules and exemptions and our reliance on Britain as a land bridge?

Will the Commissioner comment on the aviation sector, specifically the attempts to secure an open skies agreement and the impact of Brexit on regional airlines? If there is a failure to reach agreement, will it require a legal framework in order for those airlines to operate? What effect might this have on EU passengers travelling to Britain and on EU nationals living in the United Kingdom?