Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am terribly sorry for missing the contribution of the Minister of State, as I had a delegation in and I was unable to extricate myself until now. I have one issue of concern. First and foremost, I compliment the officials who are working throughout the European Union on Brexit and have done an incredible job. Everywhere I have been in Europe I have heard about the Irish problem, the Irish Border and other issues concerning Ireland. Our officials are working overtime, as are the Minister of State, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Coveney.

My one concern is the hard Brexit we all hear about. The day after the referendum in the UK I wrote about the need to manage the Border. Nobody on this island, North or South, or in the UK wants to see a border. Nor does anybody in Europe want to see a border, but the way things are going it is just possible that we will end up with a border nobody wants. I have spoken in recent days to a number of people living north of the Border and all of them are really afraid of the consequences if that happens. They said they will move to the South. I am full of confidence that things will work out the way we expect but I would like to hear whether we are putting contingency plans in place to manage a border.

As was said by one of our colleagues in the UK Parliament, the Labour Party shadow secretary, if one puts a camera up somebody will shoot it, pull it down or break it so somebody will have to mind the camera and the moment one does that one will have to put somebody there to mind the person who is minding the camera and then the situation will snowball. I made that point two years ago when I wrote the piece on the Border. If we finish up with any sort of monitoring we will have a border. We only have two barracks left, one in Dundalk and one in Finner Camp in Donegal. We have closed all of the other military barracks and we have no military presence north of a line between Dublin and Galway. We have depleted our Defence Forces in close proximity to the Border and we have closed all of the police stations. I was in Blacklion last weekend. It is a ghost town. My concern is whether we have contingency plans in place. If the Minister of State replies that she cannot say, I will understand that as well because I realise we are talking about a very sensitive issue. I would welcome the views of the Minister of State.