Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the committee. Her contributions are always very informative.

We were concerned that the European Parliament elections would have a scattergun outcome with moves to the far right and left but they seem to have converged towards the centre. I do not see a great threat to the European ideal emerging from the incoming Parliament.

My colleagues mentioned the Commission and the Commissioner, Mr. Phil Hogan. I am told I look like the Commissioner and it would be easy to slot me into his job if the Taoiseach was of a mind to do so. On a serious note, I attended one of the citizens' dialogue sessions and I compliment the Minister of State, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Coveney, on a really good job of engaging people around the country. That is what is needed to revitalise the European ideal among the people.

I am a little disappointed that the Minister of State adverted to our desire to become leaders in climate change. In the previous session, we were talking about a trip I made to Saxony last week with the German-Irish Chamber of Commerce. As the Minister of State will be aware from travelling throughout Europe, the amount of wind energy being generated on mainland Europe is astounding. It does not seem to cause any great problem to planners or anybody else. In this country, we must come to terms with whether the environment or the landscape is more important. People will criticise me for that statement but climate change is now the greatest threat to all of us.

Unlike my colleagues, I am not exactly embracing enlargement right now. I have concerns about the western Balkans. Tensions still exist there. I favour enlargement provided all those who are playing in this game realise that the European ideal is not a peacekeeping organisation and countries come to the European project having made their peace with everybody and ready to move forward and leave the past behind. Albania and North Macedonia are not really a problem, but there are other states in that region which still have difficulties in this regard. I would be interested in an update on the position in respect of Georgia.

It seems that every potential leader of the Conservative Party is in favour of reopening the withdrawal agreement. I sincerely hope that is not the case. The alternative, for which we must prepare, is that there will be a crash-out Brexit. If there is no further negotiation and clarification, the UK will crash out of the European Union. We will need serious support from the EU should that rise and I note the Minister of State and the Tánaiste have been working hard on that.

On the issue of the Border, we keep talking about our ports and saying we will have customs officials and everything else on our ports. On the day after the referendum in the UK I said the Border would be a problem. I am still unsure as to what preparations we have made to ensure the integrity of the Border. A few in this room will recall the difficulty we had in closing the Border in 2001 when the foot and mouth disease scare occurred. We closed it but it took customs, the then Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, An Garda Síochána and the Army to do so. I can see no way that the Border can remain open. By the way, I do not subscribe to this nonsense of a Border poll either. We are not ready for that.