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

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. I did not think I would be discussing this today but we are where we are and we have to deal with it. As Minister of State in the Department of Health, one of my specific areas of responsibility is older people but today my focus will mainly be on younger people and my generation. I was 22 years of age in 2008 when the Celtic tiger economy collapsed. It was a sad time for my generation. Many of us left the country in our droves. Emigration continued for six or seven years and at its height, in 2013, 1,000 Irish people were leaving Ireland every week to work abroad. This House, in particular, should reflect soberly on the impact of an entire generation of Irish people leaving the country due to decisions made.

Many of the tens of thousands who left Ireland moved to Britain for work. These included friends and cousins of mine. Meath was as badly hit as many other counties. My experience in the lead-up to the Brexit referendum, having spoken to my friends and other people living there, was that Irish peers in Scotland, London and other British cities were overwhelmingly in favour of the Remain argument, which is clear from the age demographic and profile of the results seen. For a second time in a second country, our young people living in Britain are feeling abandoned once again by political decisions. I will quote from a post a friend of mine put up on her Facebook page at the weekend. She said:

Some economic effects have been immediate with currency and stock markets free falling but major long term effects to the world's economy won't be seen until Britain transitions over the next two years. What is more immediate and what I'm more concerned about is the social cost - the internet and media are showing a rise in legitimised racism since Friday. I spoke to a friend living in Wales who is Chinese ... she said she has always felt she fitted in but now she really doesn't especially when people ask her where she's from and not in a friendly ... way ... [There is also] the Polish PHD student [who I think we all heard about] who said she felt for the first time in years [she has lived in the UK for a long time] a sense of insecurity when [people tell] her to go home.

She also said:

For my Irish peers who think this is confined to a bubble, that it doesn't and will never happen in Ireland, trust me, it does. I was born and raised here, am overeducated, came from a working class background somehow now middle class, live in a nice neighbourhood, and I still get told to go back to my own country from time to time.

We are starting to see this evolve and I am fearful, particular for friends and those living in the UK at the moment.

Last weekend I participated in the Taste of the Boyne Valley festival in Kilsaran. It is a very important event for us in the Boyne Valley region as it showcases our locally and regionally produced foods and artisan producers. There was a general sense of concern about the recent result and Brexit, particularly among farmers and food producers, so many of whom borrowed heavily in the past year with the ending of dairy quotas, to buy more cows and invest in land and parlours. Equally, beef and sheep farmers and cereal and potato producers are concerned. I am pleased to see the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, is present and I am confident the Minister of State, Deputy Doyle, and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, will provide strong leadership on this issue.

A very interesting article was written by Ellie Mae O'Hagan in The Independentof London over the weekend. She made the point that whereas Scotland and Northern Ireland each has its own local media, Wales does not. Therefore, Scottish and Northern Irish voters voted in the referendum on the basis of Scottish or Northern Irish issues, and Wales evaluated on the main issue discussed in London, which was immigration. This demonstrates the crucial role of media in our politics. With this in mind, I encourage RTE, TV3 and our radio stations to increase their coverage of 32-county issues. UTV's reportage in this regard is very welcome. This is a very serious and sensitive time in our island. North and east County Meath are very close to County Armagh and County Down, and we are good neighbours. We would like this to continue.

To touch on what the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, said, I very much believe that united we stand, divided we fall. Over the coming weeks and months we must be constructive in discussions and I will play my part wherever I can.

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