Mr. John Sheridan:

I will answer Senator Craughwell and in calling him Gerry I am not being formal. That is just the way we are, unless he insists otherwise. I thank him very much for his kind comments.

I feel as if I have been disenfranchised. First and foremost, when the referendum campaign started, we were told that £18 billion was the sum that was going to the European Union from Westminster. Whereas those in England did not quite get a buck for their pound, in the North we received approximately £1.50 or £1.60 for every £1 put in.

For the one debate held in the North, organised by the Ulster Farmers Union, UFU, on agriculture, two people were asked over: the former Secretary of State, Mr. Owen Paterson, and a former president of the National Farmers Union, NFU, Sir Peter Kendall. On Brexit, the encompassing body of the NFU for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland took the attitude that the United Kingdom should remain. Because of politics and its lobby which it had to protect, UFU sat on the fence on the issue. I asked Sir Peter Kendell to please tell us the truth. The former Prime Minister, Mr. John Major, said that after everything was taken off, £6.3 billion was the net cost to Westminster of its contribution to the European Union and that £300 million was the sum that went to the agriculture sector. There was the figure of £350 million a week on the famous red bus which was multiplied by 52 weeks to give £18 billion, but it was an absolute and outright lie and a misrepresentation. For that and many other similar reasons, I feel as if I was disenfranchised.

I am sorry for others such as those in Scotland who do not have a Holy Thursday agreement. However, I am well aware of the Good Friday Agreement which was made and lodged in the Hague. It was made following years of thought. It was not a knee-jerk reaction in a referendum. For that reason, I do not believe I am wrong in saying I was disenfranchised. We should not forget that Ireland gave up its claim to the North in the Agreement and that Britain stated the North was entitled to self-determination. It gave those of us in the North that right. That is another aspect that has to be looked at.

I chair the National Beef Association in the North of Ireland. The association has thousands of members throughout Britain and hundreds in the North. I never asked to be put in this position, but I am in it now and have a responsibility to stand up and speak from the heart and about what my head sees in the future for my family, community and country which I love with a passion. I have to speak my mind think the UFU feels the same. There is a responsibility on it to look after its members first, regardless of its lobby. It is rather disconcerting to see it sitting on the fence and stating it wants things to stay the way they are when it knew from the start they could not. That is my retort to Gerry.