Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to speak about this very important issue. The meeting of the Heads of State last week was very important. Europe must take some of the blame. The European project was a noble one and I salute its leaders and architects. I remember the canvassing for entry back in the 1970s and the different referenda since then. However, it has become too bureaucratic, powerful and rigid. It has serious impacts, including impacts on democracy. People are shocked by what has happened in Great Britain. While we were all worried, I thought that it would swing back after the merciless slaying of that wonderful MP, Jo Cox, but that did not happen. People who opposed it ran like scalded cats. The main people opposing it have exited the stage.

I attended a Derry-Monaghan wedding in Monaghan at the weekend. People were dismayed and frightened and wonder whether the Border would come back. Will there be a land border - a physical border - because people find it hard to see anything else if Article 50 is triggered by the next British Prime Minister? There is a very dangerous vacuum at the moment. The election is ongoing and different candidates are talking about the different things they are going to do. We do not know what they will do when they are elected. There is a very dangerous vacuum and we want certainty. Like colleagues and previous speakers, I met the IFA, the ICMSA, other groups and individual farmers and they are hugely concerned about CAP payments. Farms are not viable without those payments. I know the Minister and the Taoiseach have built up good contacts over the years so, hopefully, they will stand Ireland, which is a small exporting country, in good stead in order that we will keep our markets and flagship food companies like Glanbia and the Kerry Group will be able to continue exporting and providing jobs here.

I do not know whether the First Minister in Northern Ireland is trying to imitate the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, with her "out, out, out" stance. People in Northern Ireland are amazed at the DUP. I know the people voted and some people in parts of Northern Ireland voted very strongly to stay in. They are amazed at the First Minister's intransigence and tough talk. I spent the last two days at the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. The Minister of State with responsibility for tourism and sport, Deputy O'Donovan, addressed it on Tuesday morning and his words went down very well. There is huge anxiety across the board among all the Members of Parliament from England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Jersey. People are very concerned and we need to tread carefully and build up and draw upon the relationships we have built up over the years. Whatever they do needs to be done pretty soon with a roadmap charted out because the uncertainty is dangerous.

While some people say we might make some capital out of that, we do not want to make capital out of somebody else's misfortune. We may get some direct investment through companies moving here because of tax rates but we do not want that either. We want stability and to continue as we are. We want to have our place and have our Ministers and people listened to when they look for help, breathing space and derogations. I am not saying we should get derogations willy-nilly but we should get derogations for some measures that are having a draconian effect here. In respect of the nitrates directive, slurry spreading in Northern Ireland could be divided by a railing in the one field. One could spread slurry on one side of it on a certain calendar date but not spread it on the other side. These anomalies are silly. They seem to be too rigid to understand the complexities of those issues. The bureaucrats got too big for their boots in some ways. We need to examine pay scales for bureaucrats and all the un-elected people over there. It has become a bit of a gravy train and needs to be examined as well.

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