Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for allowing me to attend and ask questions. I thank both of the witnesses for their presentations.

I will commence by asking Professor Maher a few questions on her statement. I entirely agree with both witnesses that the notion we would have a free trade agreement in 14 months is farcical. It is not impossible but highly unlikely.

I share the concerns of witnesses that we are looking at a hard exit by Great Britain at the end of 2020 unless and until we have an agreement in place to stop that. I do not know if they share my concerns that it appears that both the UK Government and the EU hold quite different views on what the future trading arrangement might look like. I noted that Professor Maher said: "it is not clear what an ambitious trading relationship will look like". What does that mean? It is great to have ambition, vision and desire but it does appear that both sides are starting from widely different positions as to where they want to get to. Even in terms of level playing field provisions and the closeness of the relationship. The elephant in the room is that the UK want to pursue other trade deals free from the EU customs union. As has been pointed out, cherry-picking is not going to be an option for the UK when it comes to the agreement it has with the EU. As difficult as the last three years have been, we are heading into a mammoth task to get this free trade agreement done. I have serious concerns around transition ending at the end of 2020 and what might happen then, particularly if we have a Johnson-led government. Their stated position is that they do not want to extend the transition period. In fact, they fought an amendment to the recent legislation in the House of Commons to stop that.

We have a position where the incoming UK Government, if we can rely on the outcome of that election, is openly saying that they will not extend transition. I know this as they would not extend Brexit either and here we are. Also, Deputy Durkan, we said that Brexit would never happen yet it is happening. It was also said that the withdrawal agreement could not be reopened and redrafted yet it was. Lots of things can happen that we say cannot happen.

In terms of the end of the transition period, there is very little than we can do to control what the UK is doing. Can the witnesses tell us, from their expertise, what we should do in that context? I am concerned about this matter. At the very first meeting that I had with the Tánaiste, when the deal was brokered at the very last minute a Brexit stakeholder meeting was convened, which is public information. We had these meetings every six weeks or so. The Tánaiste and members of his Department and members of the Department of An Taoiseach meet various stakeholders. They meet various Opposition spokespersons, like myself, from the different political parties. They also meet representatives of the likes of IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, Bord Bia and Dublin Airport Authority. They meet all of the key stakeholders that would be impacted. The message that we got on that day was almost that the extension to transition was a fait accompliand almost guaranteed. Okay, it is the end of 2020 but the transition will be extended by at least a year if not two. Last week, the same evidence was given by the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation at a meeting of the Committee on Business, Enterprise and Innovation that this was a box-ticking exercise and we can rely on the extension. However, we have an incoming UK Government saying it does not want this and will not apply for same. I would like to hear the thoughts of the witnesses on the issue. I see it as the next big cliff edge or deadline for us to deal with, as a country, and 14 months will not be long going.