Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is most welcome to the committee. I also welcome my colleague, Brian Hayes, MEP, who always makes himself available to Members, as do his colleagues, Marian Harkin and Nessa Childers. Every time I turn around, Brian Hayes is here listening to what is going on and bringing back information from Brussels. For that, I am deeply appreciative, although he is a tough guy to debate against on radio.

The Minister of State, her predecessor and the Government are to be congratulated on the work they are doing. As we enter this phase of rediscovering or reappraising where we are going with Europe, I hope they will take on board the presentation made to the committee by the National Youth Council. It was looking forward to a more socially aware Europe, one more interested in the citizen than in the corporate world. I realise one cannot have a Europe without the corporate world, but the citizens somehow or other, have to be central to everything we do. Expanding youth operations and programmes, such as ERASMUS+, are extremely important. The greater integration and co-operation for our young, the more secure Europe will be as we go forward. That was evidenced in the Brexit referendum in the UK. The youth of England were not really that motivated towards breaking from Europe. There is a lesson to be learned from that.

The Minister of State averted to defence and neutrality at the same time. Sometimes in this country we get a little bogged down on the neutrality issue. Ireland is a neutral country. If there was an attempt to establish a European army, I would be the first person to shout, "Down with that sort of thing". Unfortunately, our security services, the Garda and the Defence Forces, wear two hats, a security and policing hat and a security and defence hat respectively. There is nothing wrong with greater integration in the security of Europe. I do not believe it undermines our neutrality in any way. For example, we need to integrate intelligence services right across Europe. On several occasions, I have called for the establishment of an Irish security service with a director of intelligence. It is extremely important if we are to deal with organisations such as MI5 and its European equivalents. We have to have someone of equal standing. It is simply not good enough for a Garda Commissioner to expect to deal with the director of MI5.

We need greater integration, particularly with the threats which exist across Europe today. We should not fool ourselves in Ireland that there are not terrorists being radicalised and trained here or being exported to other parts of the world. They are there under the surface. Our own police are to be congratulated because they have uncovered several terrorist cells in recent years and have brought people to justice. However, I would like to see greater integration in this area.

We always talk about defence co-operation in Europe but rarely talk about police co-operation. While there is a police co-operative service through Europe, I would like to see it enhanced and better resourced. Counter-terrorism has to be at the front of everything we do today. The other day in London with Senator Frank Feighan's delegation, someone pointed out how a busy street is an ideal target for a lone wolf terrorist. Everyone is aware of what happened in Barcelona recently and New York earlier this week. One is not safe anywhere. The only way to tackle that is by having a good intelligence and solution service, working hand in hand.

For the sake of argument - I do not want to be accused of scaremongering - if a group decided to hijack a bus of tourists in Moll's Gap, Clifden or Westport, how quickly could we get troops to that part of the country? The truth of the matter is we do not have the military hardware to get them there. Being part of a joint purchasing scheme through Europe, we possibly could buy military equipment at a much cheaper cost and equip our services much better.

I have made a similar point several times on the purchase of medicines. I cannot understand the reason Europe does not use its purchasing power. While we are capable of establishing common policies in agriculture and other areas, we appear to be incapable of forcing the major drug companies to provide drugs at the same price across Europe. I am sure Mr. Hayes will offer a reason for this in a few moments. I would like the European Union to act on this issue.

My welcome for President Tusk's vision is qualified. The Taoiseach has taken a proactive approach to various issues, including telling the European Union to keep its hands off our corporate tax rate. We will watch how this develops over time. It is great that Europe has spoken out on the nuclear deal with Iran, which is extremely important for world peace. The world has enough problems without offending the Iranians. I was a member of a recent parliamentary delegation which visited Iran where we were treated extremely well. Everywhere we went people spoke about the dangers presented by the rejection of the nuclear deal, not only to Iran, the only stable society in the region, but also to the rest of the world. It is excellent that Europe has spoken out on this issue. If the Minister of State wishes to make a comment, I would love to hear it.

Having spoken to the British this week, I am concerned that there is not enough pressure on the Brexit negotiations. At this stage, we have heard so much about Brexit that the yawn factor is beginning to emerge. When an issue such as this becomes boring, it becomes dangerous. Any move to negotiating on trade without first resolving the Northern Ireland issue leaves us in a position where the Border issue could very well be pushed aside over a period. I understand there may be a requirement to enter phase two of the negotiations in some areas. For example, one cannot talk about tariffs and customs without exploring where one is going there but I am not sure we should move fully into phase two negotiations.