Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. In my concluding remarks I referred to the Good Friday Agreement and its importance for the development of relations on an all-Ireland framework, namely, the relationships between North and South and east and west which, thankfully, have improved immeasurably over the past 15 or 20 years. Breaking the link by means of a unilateral British and Northern Irish withdrawal from the EU would deal an immense blow to our capacity to continue to work together in the best interests of all the people on this island and in Britain. We must do everything we can to safeguard Ireland's political and economic future. Fianna Fáil will be vocal in supporting Britain remaining a full member state of the European Union.

There is a need to create a better awareness throughout the island of the very serious issue that this is for us. Last July I hosted a public meeting in my own constituency in Cavan, which was addressed by our party leader Deputy Micheál Martin and by senior personnel from the Irish Farmers' Association, Queen's University Belfast and the Centre for Cross Border Studies. The meeting drew a huge attendance from counties Cavan, Monaghan, Louth, Sligo and Leitrim and from north of the Border. The SDLP is planning to hold public meetings north of the Border to create awareness and to ensure that civic society is engaged in the public debate and the campaign that will take place. Civic society will have a key role in ensuring the relevant issues are discussed when the referendum question is put to the people.

All of us who have participated in referendum campaigns here are well aware that, in many instances, issues that were not relevant at all to the question became the dominant issues in the debate. We do not want that to happen with this issue. I appeal to the Minister and the Government to ensure there is good political discourse in this State and throughout all of this island and that civic society is involved as much as possible.

One of the areas on which I would have liked the ESRI to have carried out some study is agriculture and food. Britain is a major trading partner and a hugely important destination for Irish food products and North and South work very closely at European level in agriculture matters. As the Minister will know, it is often the Irish Minister for Agriculture who defends the interest of the farming community and the food industry in Northern Ireland.

I appeal to the Minister not to allow the campaign to come down upon us without the necessary preparatory work having been done by our State to ensure we support Britain remaining a member of the EU in the strongest way possible. I grew up in a Border parish with customs posts on each road and permanent vehicle checkpoints. I do not want to see customs posts again. I want free movement of people on all of our island. It would be a dreadful return to the bad old days for all the people on this island if we were not to have free trade on the island and with the rest of the European Union.

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