Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

God bless the citizens of the United Kingdom because at the moment it seems clear they are lions led by donkeys. It is not like "A Midsummer Night's Dream" but a midsummer night's nightmare. Some of the characters involved are like the characters of that Shakespeare play. Thinking of Boris Johnson, who could play Bottom, never have the lines been so apt, "I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me" and "Lord, what fools these mortals be!"

We all have a problem in the Union as a result of the decision because there is no easy way out of this mess that everyone is in now. There is no easy negotiating position for the UK Government to take which will necessarily lead to an outcome that is good for either the Union, Ireland or the United Kingdom. It seems to me that the negotiation difficulty arises from what has been much debated - the trade-off that some people are looking for between access to trade and free movement of people. I do not believe, as the Taoiseach said earlier today, that the trade-off can be allowed within the treaties. I was shocked and surprised to hear the shadow finance minister of the Labour Party in the UK when he seemed to indicate that it might be a good deal for labour. How could it be a good deal for the left to have a world in which capital is able to move at great speed, has full flexibility and full power of manoeuvre, which gives it real negotiating strength, and at the same time restrict the ability of labour to move, which would weaken its bargaining position? It makes no sense to me for the left to be arguing for such a position. We need to recognise that part of the reason - perhaps the main reason - the vote went the way it did is because people were fearful that new people coming into the country would bring down wages and weaken the power of labour in the host country. The way to tackle that is through better standards and better minimum wage rates, not just to capitulate to capital, which is what that section of the Labour Party seems to be doing at present in trying to advance the interest of capital, with no commensurate power for labour.

I was concerned by the Taoiseach's speech that we would not put ourselves on the other side of the argument. He said in his speech earlier today that one of the interventions he made in the European Council was that we should immediately advance the TTIP negotiations. I do not know how that is possible. Where would the United Kingdom be in such a renegotiation of TTIP or the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA, with Canada? The British Government seems to have three possible choices. It may decide to place itself in that sphere with Canada, Mexico or Lord knows where and try to trade with the rest of Europe from such a third party position. I do not think that would suit the UK or Europe. That is one of the options it has. The second option is to try to do a deal similar to the Swiss one and arrange a whole range of bilateral arrangements with the European Union. It seems bound to fail because of the lack of freedom of movement which was central to the recent Swiss referendum. It would run into similar problems in the UK.

The third option, if they wanted to go with a Norway-type model which the Taoiseach seemed to indicate might be one of the options that is looked at, brings real difficulties because it requires the UK to accept all the standards of the Union without the power to frame them. There are no easy options and there is no easy way out.

At a later stage, we will be able to ask questions. One question I have is on what is the role of the European Parliament when it comes to the negotiation of a new relationship. I understand the Parliament obviously has a position in terms of having to agree on the exit, but is it only the European Council which agrees the new negotiation arrangements? I presume it must be because, if it is done on the basis of unanimity, I presume the Parliament would not be able to be involved because it would obviously not be able to work in such a way. I would be interested if the Minister's officials could forward the details of that technical aspect of it. What is the role of the European Parliament in the new relationship?

One confusing aspect of this I have heard over the past few days from the Government, which is also contained in the Taoiseach's speech today, is the two slightly different contradictory messages. The Government, on the one hand, rightly states that the ongoing uncertainty will kill investment decision-making which will lead to recession in the UK which, as sure as eggs are eggs, will affect our economy. This will make the political system worse because a divided people will be more angry so there is a case for trying to do whatever they want to do quickly but at the same time, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Taoiseach and others rightly state that we should not rush this and we should give them time. What exactly is the timeline we are thinking of? If the UK will see a new Prime Minister coming from the Conservative Party in the coming month or two, do we believe that the pulling of the trigger on negotiations should wait until 2017 or do we believe that should take place in the autumn? I am sorry to get down to minutiae of technical details but I believe the effect of the lack of certainty on the economy and, indeed, on public confidence, will only get worse because of this disastrous decision, as I see it.

As Deputy Donnelly stated, we should stand up for a Union which has economic values that both respect labour and are enterprising. We should position our country in that way in all the talks. I look forward to working with the Government in whatever way we in the Opposition can to try to rescue us from what is a bad place for all concerned.

See this speech in context