Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his very forthright statements here today. A number of people in Northern Ireland with whom I have been dealing, particularly businesses which feel they need a voice other than a political voice, have come together.

We are holding a meeting in Strabane where they are threatening to remove thousands of jobs from Northern Ireland if there is a hard Brexit on 11 December. We will be writing to the Minister to ask him to send somebody along to listen to what they have to say.

An issue we have not really looked at is the road haulage system that needs to get to the EU. The head of one company points to the fact that he carries pharmaceuticals and raw materials for Coca-Cola. If any of his trucks is stopped anywhere between the point of departure and the point of arrival, that truck must be turned around and sent back home. He cannot deliver where a truck has been opened. As trucks cross from what is a EU country through a third county, we have no way of securing or ensuring these vehicles are not interfered with in any way so that is one issue I would like the Minister to address.

I got a little worried when the Minister spoke about the 50% plus one. I have quite a lot of sympathy for the unionist community in Northern Ireland and the fear of nationalism taking over and swamping it. However, at the same time, we need an assurance that there cannot be a veto by any group over the future of the island of Ireland or the future of any Border poll. It sends an uncomfortable message that we must placate people before we would even consider that. I find it deeply disappointing that there is nobody from the unionist community here. I know some of them would want to be here. We need to be very careful with the language we use. I would appreciate it if the Minister looked at that again.

How will cross-Border institutions like Waterways Ireland fare in a post-Brexit world where we may finish up with different standards and where funding will certainly be an issue? A man told me recently that post-Brexit, he would be a third-class Irishman. Will the Minister address this? The man said that a first-class Irishman lives and works in the Republic of Ireland, a second-class Irishman lives and works in the EU and a third-class Irishman lives and works in the UK. He feels he will be discriminated against. Notwithstanding the fact that he will carry an Irish passport, he will not have the same rights and privileges that come with EU membership.

My final point concerns prisoners, not the ones Deputy O'Sullivan was talking about, but those who were released under the Good Friday Agreement and who are suffering the most horrendous discrimination heard of in Northern Ireland. This is cross-community in that it does not affect any specific community. We are hearing things like insurance being loaded on cars. Billy Hutchinson told us that his wife's insurance went from £200 to £800 when the company realised who she was married to. We also heard about the grandchildren of former prisoners being refused access to the security services in Great Britain. We heard of one lady who was asked to leave the Metropolitan Police once they found out her grandfather had been in prison. Like it or lump it, and I may not like part of it, but the prisoners released under the Good Friday Agreement were not ordinary decent criminals. They were political prisoners who were released under an agreement. We should surely have cleared the record as they left and allowed them freedom to travel throughout the world wherever they wish to go as well as freedom to get insurance and things like that. We are all aware of what happened but when one enters into an agreement, the agreement must be met. I would be interested in hearing the Minister's views on that. I will not hold him up because many other members wish to speak.