Mr. Matt Carthy:

I will respond briefly to some of the points made.

Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked an important question about whether Brexit could lead to the destruction of the European Union. Obviously, we all hope it will not. The answer to the question lies in whether the rest of us will learn the lessons from it. It is true - it has been repeated ad nauseam- that in large part the Brexit vote result was caused by a xenophobic negative racist element which was epitomised by the Deputy's good friend who was in Ireland.