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

I echo the Chairman's sentiments on the people who should see benefit from the package. These people are in the critical area of production for the country and the European Union. It is tied to and is essential to exports and jobs in the European Union. I compliment the Minister of State on her interaction and work throughout the European Union advertising Ireland's cause right across the Union. The causes of Ireland and the EU have converged to a large extent so I compliment her on her role in this respect. We are in a formative era for the EU and this is a new challenge, with new personnel, issues and challenges. There are matters that will have to be resolved within the European Union by the Union and its people in the next five years. We should wish the Minister of State well in her role in dealing with issues wherever they may arise.

We have mentioned in past times the need to ensure equity and that the Single Market applies right across the board to everybody. We must be able to buy and sell into the Single Market and be treated equally within it. We should not be penalised any more than anybody else in the Single Market. We must have the right, the space and the ability to prosper, and we have that now.

Climate action is a major challenge for every country. Some countries contribute to a greater or lesser extent than others to carbon footprints. We must note that we have a role to play. Agriculture can and will play a role on the basis that it is already very efficient in its treatment of the environment, as it has proven over many years. For example, I do not accept the notion that we should have a knee-jerk reaction and take one sector of the economy out of business because of the idea that is a sole contributor to the problem. We are not the sole contributors to the problem across the European Union and we are like everybody else. Some areas are better than others. It is essential we deal meaningfully with the matters that must be dealt with. For example, electricity generation leaves a major carbon footprint. This is key to what we must deal with in future both from an economic, environmental and competition perspective. We have a role to play and we expect to be able to play it. We do not have to destroy our economy to do this.

We must welcome enlargement as we are Europeans and others wishing to come on board the Union are Europeans as well. There is a commitment to the acquis communautaire, and new members would be as entitled as we are. We are becoming part of a bigger Union but equal contributors to it, and that is the way it should be. There can be no exceptions and we are all part of the same group. Government policy is absolutely correct in that it is proper to welcome enlargement. However, we must insist that countries coming on board that committed to the acquis before coming on board remain committed to the acquisafter membership of the Union is granted. That is critical. This leads to application of the rule of law and we must insist the rule of law applies right across the European Union. If there are exceptions, compliance with the acquiswould no longer exist and a pretence otherwise would be wrong, misleading and very damaging to the concept of the European regime and project.

Last and by no means least, we come to Brexit. It has been a topic of conversation all the time and it will remain as a topic for some time yet. In the short few months ahead, the issue will develop to a greater or lesser extent, or else it will not develop at all. We have a meaningful role to play within the European Union, as Ministers have, along with the Opposition over recent years. That meaningful role within the Union has been about bringing people together to establish common ground and objectives, with less reliance on emerging nationalism, which is the enemy of the European Union. I will conclude with a point I made in response to the previous submission. If there is a discussion on a loosening of the rules in the European project, it will be the beginning of the end for the Union.

The first brick in the wall that removes member states' responsibility or allows member states to proceed of their own accord will be the beginning of the end of the European Union. People across the European Union need to examine that carefully and ask whether we should go here and whether we have been there previously and, if so, what were the results and costs of our previous visit to that particular pedestal. The evidence is clearly there for everybody. My party strongly supports the lines being taken by the 27 member states and we hope the UK will find its way back into the European Union at a later stage.