Dáil debates

Tuesday, 27 September 2016

Ceisteanna - Questions

Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements

4:10 pm

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Through the Taoiseach's contacts with the British Prime Minister, has he any sense of where Britain is at in terms of Article 50? We are getting various indicators that Article 50 could be triggered early next year. The British Government is now busily recruiting about 300 people to strengthen its capacity to deal with the Brexit negotiations. As I said to the Taoiseach earlier, there are already different poles of influence developing within the Tory Party. One group is looking for a soft exit, EEA-type agreement or Norwegian trade agreement; others want a very hard Brexit and, though very ill-thought, are considering either a WTO-type agreement or something close to the Canadian deal. However, they are not clear themselves, and it seems that this sense of absence of clarity on the British side must be hampering our attempts to formulate a proper set of strategies and tactics in how we pursue and achieve our objectives.

For the most part we know what are our objectives but the key issue will be how we go about securing them, both across Europe and the EU member states and in ensuring that we can influence to a certain, albeit limited extent the degree to which Britain will approach these talks. It is interesting that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for example, is beginning to witness the hard realities of what Brexit means for the British Exchequer and for the financial services sector in the UK. At recent meetings he has had with some of the big banks and so on, they have been telling him straight that they need clarity from Britain, or else. An element of that could be of benefit to Ireland, but the fundamental point is the lack of clarity.

Regarding our objectives in Northern Ireland, my worry is that not enough detailed work has been done. For example, about a billion gallons of milk a day come into the South from the North. That is just one small illustration of the enormity of the two-way trade between the North and South that will be affected by this. I thought the Taoiseach and I agreed in July that we would try to have an all-island approach to Brexit. I put forward the idea that a mechanism should be developed whereby a social and civic forum would be established on an all-island basis to facilitate inputs from civil society in the North and the Republic into an issue of common concern, that is, Brexit and its implications for business, trade, workers, education, research and agriculture and farming on the island of Ireland. The implications will be very severe.

We must move away from just fuzzy talk or generalisations to concrete realities. We all say we do not want a hard Border. How does one put flesh on that bone? It is easier said than done if Britain separates from the EU. Are we looking at a border between the UK and the island of Ireland rather than one between the North and South? Clearly we want the former but we need to be thinking legally through formulas and models that can realise those kinds of objectives. It cannot all be wishful thinking or the articulation of wishful thoughts that we might like to see happening. The implementation and the realisation of those objectives are two different things.

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