Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

We also need to be cautious not to show weakness in our negotiating position. If we are seen to waiver in any way in our negotiating position, negotiated by the European Union on our behalf, then we are lost because that then becomes the starting point and then there will follow a series of compromises. That is not the way those negotiations should take place.

A country decided to leave the European Union of its own accord. It has been repeatedly stated that Brexit means Brexit, regardless of what anybody else thinks. That is fine, but there are consequences arising from that for the country leaving as well. There obviously will be consequences for the countries remaining.

I have a different attitude to the vote in the UK House of Commons yesterday. I think it shows a weakness in its government and its opposition. There is no alternative. There is only one show in town, which worries me. Brexit means Brexit and so they are going anyway. If others want to follow, they can do so. That is what it means.

We are at a very precarious point. We need to hold our nerve. We need to fix our vision firmly on the interests of our European Union, uphold the principles in that and not deviate from it. If we do, we will be the weak part. We will become an appendage of the UK, which will be a dangerous place to be. They will be speaking for us because they are going. We need to be cautious about it. I had hoped at this stage that we would have seen the emergence of a stronger pro-European sentiment within the UK, but that has not happened and it will not happen.

If it happens the other way, it follows on that the UK goes. However, the British cannot dislodge the fundamentals of the European Union on their way out. They cannot destroy the European Union on their way out. They cannot reform it in such a way as to make it unworkable. They cannot create an option for others to follow that will entitle them to envisage an improvement arising from being outside the European Union. In other words, as the saying goes a house divided within itself cannot stand.

Based on my reading of European history, we are in a very precarious position. Of most concern to me is that the UK authorities seem to be hell-bent on going in this direction. They treat the debate as if they were releasing themselves from oppression. When we listen carefully to the dialogue, we pick up many warnings that we need to keep in mind. In the course of negotiations, there is only one place we can be.

The UK never took ownership of the European Union. It never regarded the European Union as being part of its territory - politically, socially or economically. It was always a them-and-us situation. If the European Union member states wish to go about it in that fashion, they could all decide at some stage to go back to the old days when they were much better. Were they much better then? That is salutary thought for us all. I strongly urge us all to recognise where we would be heading, if we went down that road.