Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As this is my first opportunity to address the Thirty-second Dáil, I congratulate my colleagues on their re-election and congratulate the new Ceann Comhairle. I hope that, in the new spirit of multi-party politics, we can work together and, sooner rather than later, form a new Government.

The prospect of Britain leaving the EU following the upcoming Brexit referendum is certainly of national interest to Ireland and is a concern for the many thousands of people I and other Deputies represent in this Parliament. As a Parliament, we need to be mindful of our responsibility, which is much more than "poor Ireland" and how this is going to affect our economy or trade. We represent a number of different groups in Irish society and it is important to acknowledge them. We have spoken to many of these groups in recent weeks and months, and not just for the purpose of this debate. With regard to Irish emigrants, the British census data shows there are 675,000 people living in Britain who were born in Ireland. During the recession, more than 13,000 Irish people were emigrating to Britain every year, including many of my own generation. There is obviously a logic that Brexit would give a competitive boost to foreign direct investment here in Ireland, in particular to the IFSC, and this would be beneficial for Irish people working abroad who wanted to come home. While that is a logic understood by many Irish people living in Britain, having spoken to any of my friends working there, who would be set to benefit from this, all of them think Irish people working in Britain, in particular young Irish people, are best served by Britain remaining in the EU. My generation of Irish people are strongly opposed to Brexit.

While we know a very significant number of Irish citizens live in Britain, there is comparatively less acknowledgement of the corresponding figures. The last census shows over 110,000 British citizens are living in Ireland, making this the largest ethnic minority in the Republic. To consider the impact Brexit would have for a British person living in Ireland, who perhaps has moved over, married an Irish person, has children who are Irish citizens and who is raising a family here, I feel it would diminish their political status. Having spoken to people about this, I believe many would essentially feel like foreigners in an unaligned country. This Parliament needs to be mindful of our collective duty to them, as well as to our Irish citizens abroad.

To take one area of business, farming, 31% of our agrifood produce is exported to Britain. Obviously, in order to discourage other countries from leaving the EU, I believe there would be harsh implications and that a very tough exit deal would be negotiated with the UK. What would it mean for Ireland if the EU puts up very large walls in order to make things more difficult for the UK? Ireland is the first country that would suffer if that is the case. We could look to monetary tariffs but regulatory blockages that will interfere with trade could mean that the terms of trade between the EU and Britain will become a serious challenge for farmers in Meath and other counties, in particular for Boyne valley producers with whom I work continuously and whom I represent.

For example, the EU has a common approach to animal slaughtering licensing. Possibly, a post-Brexit Britain would operate outside this system. Again, this would be a disastrous prospect for Meath beef farmers in particular.

I wish to move on from specific individuals. We all understand there is hostility on the part of some citizens in Britain to the EU. This is the cause of the referendum and the whole discussion. It is important to understand the main reasons behind this because hostility is felt in various countries. It is evident not only in the UK but in Ireland as well. One of the reasons is the cynicism of politicians and national political parties. For a long time politicians throughout Europe, including Ireland - we are the same, as are our political parties - have been taking personal credit or appropriating credit for their political party for success stories. This means when something happens and it is good and right, we take credit for it. However, the EU has been like a mudguard in many instances. When things have gone wrong we have been able to blame the EU. This means throughout the EU there is much cynicism and this has a knock-on effect on people's view of how we look at the EU. I call on all Deputies to be mindful of this and to make an effort not to abuse the EU for narrow local short-term political gain.

There is a second reason some British citizens and others throughout Europe are hostile to the EU. The EU is often bureaucratic and at times undemocratic in its approach towards European policy-making and the way it impacts on local communities. For example, let us consider the logical integration of services. There is an EU principle that every reasonable person understands and accepts whereby it makes sense for countries to come together to provide health services to patients with extremely rare diseases. By pooling resources countries can provide better medical research and ultimately better health care. One of my colleagues touched on the question of energy security. A common approach to energy security across a large group of like-minded countries makes sense. However, sometimes in working towards understandable policy objectives, EU policies that we try to introduce ride roughshod over our local communities. I see this with the North-South interconnector and how it is impacting on communities in Meath, Cavan and Monaghan as well as on the other side of the Border. One of the main focuses of British-Irish integration in the past decade relates to the idea of a single British-Irish energy market with power to be transmitted by North-South and cross-channel interconnectors. Brexit might signal the collapse of this integration initiative. Such an outcome would not be welcome in many homes throughout Meath, Cavan and Monaghan. The important political point is that a semi-State company is trying to build infrastructure. It is being prompted to do so by the European integration policy objectives. It is trying to develop a project in a part of Ireland where families are reasonable. However, when such a body is implementing the project and pushing it on families, it means they start looking at things in a different manner and possibly not in a positive light.

There are implications for the North as well. I live 40 minutes from the Border. There are deep and natural connections between my area and parts of the North. Only last week a group of Fine Gael activists with whom I work were in nearby Newry to canvass for the SDLP. Indeed, an SDLP member, John Hume, has made the point several times that the European Union provided the setting for the Northern Ireland equality and peace process to develop. Before the broader setting of the European Union, with Britain and Ireland as two member states in a larger union, the dynamic was of one large country against a smaller country. We cannot allow things to go back to that state. It would have serious consequences for the North. I have family living in the North. I have a cousin who is married to a man from the North. Traditionally, they come from separate backgrounds but both are completely opposed to any kind of exit.

As Members of Dáil Éireann we owe it to Irish emigrants, young and old, who are living in the UK, British citizens living in Ireland, people in Northern Ireland, Meath farmers and every other Irish worker and businessperson who trades with the UK and further afield to provide leadership on this issue as well as representation in the debate. There are 159 Deputies in the House who were elected to provide leadership. If we do not have a Dáil we cannot do that, but I hope we will have a Dáil and a Government soon enough. Just as the people of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Britain and many other countries have benefitted over the decades from European integration, so it is the case that the people whom we are elected to represent would benefit from new partnerships and joined-up thinking.

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