Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the president of the European Committee of the Regions. I had the pleasure of meeting him last year at a meeting arranged by Micheál Ó Conchúir, the secretary general of the European Alliance, and at the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. I met him and the European Committee of the Regions. It is important that the committee is involved in this. I compliment him on the report the committee prepared. We are well represented by Councillor Michael Murphy, the leader of the Irish delegation and rapporteur for part of the report. He had a big input into it. It is important the representatives are here now and I am delighted they are going to the Border region. It is a border of nearly 500 km with so many openings one could not possibly control them. It absolutely has to be seamless. The European Committee of the Regions has huge influence, given that its members come from all over the European Union, in emphasising the situation we are in. I am very impressed by the report, the resolution the committee passed last week and, indeed, Councillor Murphy's input into this from the point of view of the support from the regions.

There is no doubt that it is a very worrying time for the Irish public. The representatives will get that feeling when they are here. We were with Micheál Ó Conchúir last year as members of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. It is a mixed committee. Under the Good Friday Agreement the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly will continue after Brexit when the British withdraw next March. I commend the committee on the work it is doing. It really has a feeling for this situation. There is no doubt from what the representatives have said already that they know the concerns we have. I realise that other countries have concerns about their citizens who live and work in Britain and their future after the withdrawal. We have a particular relationship with the United Kingdom that will continue after Brexit. That is very important, particularly the free movement of people. We also want to maintain the free movement of goods and services. I am very impressed by the four parties in Northern Ireland. They made a statement today about the situation.

I feel confident about the committee's present knowledge from the briefing of the leader of our group and our representatives. The president will know that Ireland has a very good team on the European Committee of the Regions. We have always taken that committee very seriously and we have always had full representation and full attendances at the meetings. We always felt it was a great honour that our representatives were there. As Senator Richmond said, he was a leader of the group as well. Many others have attended too. I compliment the Irish delegation on briefing the president, his colleagues and the different parties on the impact of Brexit on Ireland. It was excellent work by the Irish group and Michael Murphy, its leader.

I thank the representatives for attending today and I look forward to hearing the outcome after they have seen the Border. They have met our colleagues in the committee and the Chairman. They will get a sense and a feeling for what the situation is on the ground. I am sure the president will agree that there is no better experience than the first hand one of coming to Ireland to meet the people, go to the Border and see the potentially devastating impact if there is any danger of returning a border which we have now been rid of for 20 years.