Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests and thank the Minister for his interesting dissertation. As he said, we have a great deal in common. Unfortunately, people decided over our heads that they would go in a different direction. It was not a wise decision. Mr. Farage was in Ireland last week. At the time of the referendum, he illustrated to people the massive benefits that would accrue from leaving the EU. I have not seen them manifest since, but they amounted to multiples of billions of pounds. It is sad that people voted on the basis of what was at best misinformation. The Minister's assessment of it was correct.

On the other side of the coin, there are considerable benefits to being in a market of 500 million people. Regardless of what anyone says or the attitudes to be found within that market, this is especially the case for exporting countries like Scotland and Ireland.

Regarding the Minister's assessment of the Northern Ireland situation, we cannot move from that position. We are committed to it, given that we are joint sponsors of the Good Friday Agreement alongside the UK, the US and the EU, all of whom signed up to it. It would be a catastrophe if we moved even an inch away from it. As everyone knows, if we move at all, that becomes the starting point and we eventually end up heading in that direction.

The odd disconsolate word comes from within the EU.

Every household has that problem from time to time and we do not worry about it. We have to deal with it in the ordinary course of the day's political and economic events. That is part and parcel of what we do. I agree with the Chairman that the best thing that could happen would be a reconsideration. That is still a possibility. I cannot see what the benefits of non-membership of the European Union could be for 65 million people. The suggestion is that it will enable Britain to open up new markets. The world is a different place from what it was 40 years ago and it is changing every day. The market beside us is the one we most treasure, the same is true for Scotland and the UK. We are all each other's best partners in trade. When it comes to football and rugby we differ slightly, otherwise we have many common interests.

Mr. Russell's use of Irish poets is interesting. I mentioned John Donne's poem "No Man is an Island" to Bill Cash when he was here. The opening lines are very important:

No man is an island entire of itself; every man

is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;

if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe

is the less, . . .

So are those who leave. It ends with: "And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee." It is very pertinent. Although it was written hundreds of years ago it identifies precisely what could happen in this situation and it is happening in front of our eyes.

I hope reason will prevail. I do not know whether it will but as long as there are people trying to point out the advantages of being outside the Single Market and its 500 million people I do not see any way for progress. The expectation in some quarters in the UK is that there will be a change, the situation will be watered down and we will return to having borders. That will not happen. It would be a travesty. It would be unbelievable for the political reality in this country, as the witnesses know. We hope that Scotland's views will prevail. As a member of the EU we will do our best to be a positive influence on the inside, to hold out the hand of friendship and to maintain the contacts that have been established with those who wish to maintain them in the coming years.