Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for her presentation. Places like Kazakhstan are important, not alone in trade terms, but also in our contact with that part of the world. We need to think beyond the pale when we look at what will happen with Britain exiting the EU. We have to be very conscious that we are going to end up as an island nation, stuck out in the Atlantic with no near neighbour who is a member of the European Union. I am very fearful that it will be very easy to be forgotten if we are not regularly involved. The contact with Britain through various means has been a great advantage for people looking to this part of Europe. Friendship with Kazakhstan - not that there would be a great deal of trade initially - can be beneficial where we are at one end and they are at the other. I attend today to support the Minister of State and the proposal before us but also point out that we have to raise awareness publicly at every opportunity that we have a bigger task on our shoulders with the prospect of Britain exiting the EU. There has not been enough discussion within this country as to what is going to happen. We are all so gobsmacked - at least I am – by the hullabaloo about Britain's exit that we have forgotten both where we are going to stand into the future and the fact that part of this island will not be in the EU either.

These are very serious issues for this committee that we should highlight and get people thinking about as to how we are going to improve our contact with other parts of Europe. I am not exaggerating when I say this but everybody knows, particularly people of our vintage, if the Cathaoirleach does not mind me saying so, because we have been around a long time, that it is a fact that before Ireland joined the EU, we were stuck out there and we were a small, undeveloped country. I do not want to see anything happening as a result of Britain's exit that will lead to the same happening again. We need to make contact and be conscious of our need to become part and parcel of welcoming in countries like Kazakhstan as members into the whole trade situation, and to look ahead to what way we are going to deal with the situation we are going to be faced with.

It would be important that at some early date, we as a committee should have a general discussion as to where we think we are going with the exit of Britain and not be hanging around waiting for it to happen, not that I suggest that we are. The way things are going there, one would not know what is going to happen. It is vitally important that we keep up to date and keep Ireland's future out there in red lights.