Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to contradict the views of the previous speaker. I am astonished by the amount of ignorant and uninformed rhetoric that has just come from her. I would like to explain to her the subsidiarity of national law to EU law, which was in place when we joined the EU in the 1970s, but I cannot do so because she is walking out the door. We will have to pretend we do not know that the system to which I refer, which has been in place since before Ireland became a member of the EU, exists.

If I am being really honest, a little part of me wanted to see the EU get a kick in the backside. I suppose it got a kick in the backside and an awful lot more. It got a bloody nose. The result of the referendum has done a great deal of damage. I believe the voters of the UK, who are our nearest neighbours and friends, have made a mistake that will have significant repercussions elsewhere. I remind the House that when we were facing our worst ever economic difficulties in 2008, the UK Government provided a bilateral loan of billions of euro to this State. That is something we should not forget.

As I waited for the result of the referendum the other night, I watched as the results came in from two of the 380 counts, those in Newcastle and Sunderland, which started a trend that was clearly only going to go one way. In one case, the "Remain" vote won but was lower than we would have liked and in the other case, the "Leave" vote won and was higher than we would have liked. The real difficulty we face now as the UK's nearest neighbour is that we might get caught in the crossfire. There is annoyance, anger and vexation, particularly among the countries of eastern Europe, because of challenges for those countries that probably did not exist five years ago. They are being challenged by developments in Russia, by the refugee crisis in Syria and by the possible accession of Turkey to the EU. It was better to have a more stable and more concrete bloc of 28 countries than a bloc of 27 countries and another country that has decided by a small margin to leave.

I do not subscribe to the point of view that the voters of the UK should be given another go at it and asked to vote again until they come up with the right answer. My opinion is that the "Leave" vote would have been much closer to 60% if it had not been for the horrible killing of an MP, Jo Cox. The trend was going in that direction until this young woman was the victim of a savage attack. Perhaps the result would change if the referendum were held again, but I do not know whether the "Remain" side would win.

There is no doubt that the biggest challenge for Ireland is in the agriculture sector. Approximately €5 billion of our total food and beverage exports of €11 billion are exported to the UK. I saw a remarkable and more important statistic recently. Approximately 90% of our food exports to the UK, which as I have said are worth €5 billion, are consumed within two weeks. That is how quickly our produce is brought to the UK, put on the shelves, paid for and consumed. It will be a real challenge for our agriculture sector to replace that market if it has to do so as a result of the outcome of the conversation between the UK and the EU when Article 50 is invoked.

As I said at the outset, the people in the UK are our friends. Many of them are our family. I do not want to see them punished. I can understand the thoughts of those who do not think the UK should be rewarded. They should not have an opportunity to pick and choose in an àla cartemanner, to use a term I heard yesterday. They cannot have the best of both worlds. They cannot have an opportunity to undercut or reduce workers' rights or environmental standards while retaining access to the Single Market. That certainly cannot be allowed to happen. I believe last week's vote was a mistake. It will probably lead to the break-up of the Act of Union between England and Wales, and Scotland. It has the potential to lead to the break-up of the Irish Act of Union. My real concern is that it could lead to the break-up of the EU. We are in a political time when anything could happen. I have to say I found the applauding of some people in the European Parliament disappointing. Those people were elected and that is democracy. Democrats disappoint us on some occasions.

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