Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and I join my colleagues on congratulating Mr. Phil Hogan on his appointment. I want to cut straight to the chase. A senior politician in this country has said this may boil down to the Single Market or the Good Friday Agreement. I would like some assurance that both are held in equal esteem and neither is trade-offable against the other.

I have a number of specific questions. Will the Minister of State tell us what exercises have been carried out with respect to import-export customs checking on our ports? Do we know how long it will take to check a 40 ft trailer and how long it will take to clear a truck? We were told there will be 9 km of tailbacks in the UK. How far will the tailbacks be in Ireland? What facilities have we off-site for Dublin Port, Rosslare, Waterford, Cork and, possibly, Foynes in Limerick to allow for the parking or stacking and racking of trucks until they are cleared?

Clearly, we have lost all corporate knowledge of managing a customs border over the years. I note some vehicles were delivered to County Louth yesterday. Is training taking place for customs officials? This brings me onto the issue of the Border or borders, as my colleague adverted to. The Conservative Party, and in particular the Prime Minister, have no understanding of what a border in Ireland means, as they suggest we might have a border ten miles north of the actual Border and ten miles south of it, creating a 20-mile no-man zone somewhere between the two jurisdictions. This would give a field day to every criminal and smuggler that ever walked. On the basis of this, what accommodation has been prepared for the military in the case that we must reintroduce a border? If we put up a border post, we will have to have a guard and if we have guards, we will have to have military people to look after them.

The landbridge will clearly be a problem. In the past, some of my colleagues have stated that the British Government might allow for rapid transport between Holyhead and Dover. This is just not going to happen. At the end of the day, trucks are trucks and they will fall in line with whatever trucks are there. The seabridge becomes an option but there will be an expense or cost involved in using the seabridge to go directly to Duisburg, the Hook of Holland or wherever. Will we be able to provide some support for companies to get over the initial cost impact of using the seabridge? In the event of an illegal - as we understand it - crash-out on 31 October, is it not true that on 1 November 2019, trade talks will have to start anyway? The notion the UK will crash out with no deal is a bit of a nonsense because it will have to find a deal within a few months of crashing out anyway. I will leave it at that because I know the Minister of State's time is very tight.