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

I welcome the Minister of State and her colleagues to the meeting. I compliment her, her ministerial colleague and the Taoiseach on the tremendous stance they have taken and work done relating to Brexit in particular. I will speak to the other issues in a moment. I worry sometimes when I hear comments from negotiators on the British side resembling jingoism in the oldest form. Reference was made by an individual in the past week to "the enemy" but we are not in a war situation yet. If we allow ourselves to go down that road, we will eventually talk ourselves into it. I refer specifically to the European Union.

There is much more at stake here than the UK and Brexit. It is a brick in the wall and it could be the first brick to come loose. The European Union has an obligation and duty to its member states to ensure the Union stands firm. The EU did not decide that some member states should leave. A member state decided to leave by itself on the basis of misinformation given by public representatives. The information was erroneous and grossly misleading. One member of the European Parliament spent 18 years undermining the European Union and its concept. The only thing offered at the end of the day was nothing at all. There were going to be benefits for everybody in the UK but there was nothing tangible when it came down to it.

European Union negotiators, including Mr. Barnier and his colleagues, should be complimented on the way they have handled this. They are negotiating with us and on our behalf, so we must be very careful not to undermine them. If we undermine them it would be an indication to UK authorities that all is not well and we are not all united. In one fell swoop, the European Union could disintegrate. That is what will happen. If one brick is taken from the wall, it will come down. There are people who want to hark back to older and better times, and so on, and I am not certain to what times they refer. I am not sure if they refer to the empire that ruled before or the communist regimes of the past. Do they prefer war when the last world war cost the lives of approximately 60 million people? I do not know what some people are referring to when they are so determined to roll back the carpet. We must be extremely careful and the Irish Government and European Union have adopted the most fortuitous position that could be found. It is the only workable position, and deviation from it will lead to disaster.

It should be remembered that very little reference has been made by UK authorities to the fact that the Good Friday Agreement is an international peace agreement, signed, accepted and contributed to by the international community, including the EU and the United States. All of a sudden it seems to be no longer relevant and is being pushed away. We must be careful in the negotiations of compromises and what they might mean. In the normal course of events it might be that compromises take place in negotiations but any compromise by the EU will be fatal.

I will very quickly go through other points, including enlargement. I totally agree with the process and it is important that the western Balkans, a tinder box in the past, come under the strong influence of the European Union. That includes compliance with the acquis communitaire and the regulations, as has been referred to with respect to the operation of the European Union. In some countries there is a tendency to move independently of the European Union but membership entails compliance with the rules that prevail within the Union. That is for a very good reason and the benefit of all, so no country can break out and make its own unilateral decisions for its own benefit, now or in the future.

I forgot to mention one thing on Brexit. No country, however big or small, can be allowed to move away from the Union and improve its status as a result. The Union would be finished then. If one country breaks out and decides to get a better deal - for strategic, geographic or whatever reason - the Union is gone. It cannot prevail in those circumstances. We would be back to where we were in the "good old days", to which some people keep referring. That is an appalling prospect. I could spend time on other issues but I will not.

We have all mentioned the peace process and the importance of ensuring the Union prevails. The biggest single process in the history of Europe and the globe was the European Union itself. It came together from the ashes of utter and total destruction when man's inhumanity to man saw new depths and the most appalling atrocities were accepted without demur. We found out about them only afterwards. Many people at the time, however, knew what was going on. We need to learn from that. It was a very bitter and costly experience. If there are those who think there are advantages in harking back to that era, or something like it, they are wrong. We do not need a war to prove that nor do we need the fragmentation of the European Union. It has worked extremely well for the past 50 years and is capable of doing that into the future for as long as it takes.