Gerard Craughwell (Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State for his work in Europe. It cannot be easy to find oneself in Latvia one day and in Greece the next, it is tough going. When we visited Brussels, I was very impressed at the level of work being carried out by the ambassador and his team there. The one down-side to the Minister of State's work and that of the ambassador is that not enough citizens in Ireland are aware of the level of work and commitment which has been put in by both offices in Europe. We have to find a way to bring that message back home. People are genuinely concerned about where we are going and that there is not a plan in place. As things unfold, like any good game of poker, we begin to see more and more of the plan emerge. Having seen some of the work close-up, I believe the Minister of State is putting his back into it and I wish there were more opportunities for it to be set out for the public.

I am concerned by a couple of issues. The Minister of State cannot do much about one of them himself but I want to raise it. Some 100,000 UK citizens living in Northern Ireland are excluded from the benefits of the Good Friday Agreement insofar as they cannot apply for a dual passport or Irish passport. The reason is that they had moved from other parts of the world to Northern Ireland. Many of these people have children who have dual passport entitlement. As we progress through Brexit, we need to look at this question and address it. Any opportunity I get to mention this, I do so.

On the issue of UK finances, not long ago a group from the House of Commons came before us. We broached the subject of their living up to their 2020 commitments. The view among a small number was that when they were gone, they were gone and their money was gone with them. Can the Minister of State offer any enlightenment on this area from what he has heard on the other side?

People are tired of hearing the terms of the soft and hard Border. I believe that in the short time available to negotiate Brexit, 16-odd months, it is more likely to be a disorganised or disruptive Brexit rather than hard or soft. There will be a lot of things that will have to be pushed out that cannot be dealt with in this short period. I am interested to hear the Minister of State's views on this.

The Minister of State referred to a strong Europe during his opening remarks . If we have learned nothing else in recent months, it is that there is a cohort of people in Europe who are disaffected and becoming more and more so over time. I am particularly concerned about young people. When young people have nothing else to do, it is very easy to radicalise them. Whatever comes forward in the new Europe, post-Brexit, must have policies that are not wishy-washy but that offer serious career opportunities to young people on the continent of Europe. That fits into the area of the social dimension.

It is possible to make all the plans in the world, but if it is something unpalatable we blame Europe. This is part of what drove Brexit and we still have not learned that in this country. We say that we were given a directive, we have to comply with European law. In his opening statement, the Minister of State said that we negotiate. We agree policy. Has anyone thought of how we feed this down to the public, that the policies are agreed and it is not some type of Big Brother, looking over our shoulders and telling us what to do?

On health, I do not understand how I can go to Lanzarote and buy a year's worth of medication at a fraction of the cost of what I would pay in Ireland for exactly the same thing. If we are talking about an integrated Europe and about the buying power of Europe, with the large pharmaceutical companies - we have just seen the debacle here over Orkambi - surely to God we must be able to negotiate central purchasing. If we can do it for defence, why not for health?

I mentioned defence but I am concerned that we are focusing on defence and not policing. There should be much closer co-operation of police forces throughout the European Union. If anything, there should be a single European police force that feeds into the national police forces of every other country.