Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is important to have a proper debate on this but I do not believe statements such as these are a worthwhile way of dealing with such huge issues. People across the globe have concerns about trade agreements but the Taoiseach and other Ministers are going over to Europe and will acquiesce in what the Europeans want. There are huge issues and no possibility to opt out. Instead, we are being cajoled and bullied by eurocrats to get back into line. After Brexit we need a serious reassessment - though we needed it anyway and I believe we had the Brexit vote because of the functioning of the European Union. It is too big and, across a whole range of areas, it is out of touch with the feelings of ordinary families in ordinary places.

The EU was not even consulted on the ceasefire or any other agreements in Syria. Two years ago, I visited Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon and saw the pain and anguish on the faces of the people. I saw only elderly women and small children. They had only hours to leave their home and they had suffered persecution and threats. They had no hope of going back. With the bombing, devastation is being heaped on Syria on a daily basis. I attended an international conference during the summer on the situation in the Middle East and on the persecution of Christians throughout the region.

We look back and all the figures and facts are there to prove it. They show clearly that while we had awful dictators in some of those countries, such as Iraq and Syria, Christian communities and minority Muslim communities were allowed to practise and cherish their faith with impunity, and now they are being massacred. We bombed the hell out of the place to get rid of these dictators and the situation of persecution is far, far worse.

I commend the Naval Service on the proud work it has done on humanitarian grounds in the Mediterranean and the thousands of lives it has saved over the past two years since it went there. It is heart-rending to see and it must have an awful impact on those Naval Service personnel. I salute and commend them.

We need to give serious thought to and have a proper debate in this Parliament, which we have not had, about what is happening in the Middle East and about that persecution. In that vein, the rural Independent group has a Private Members' motion coming up in a few weeks time to have some meaningful and insightful debate on what is happening in the Middle East. There is warmongering, terror, destruction and devastation of life and communities. We have Russia, the United States, and many others pulling the strings and interfering. It is not a much better place than it was. It is a far worse place than it was under the dictators, and that is serious. It is food for thought. We should be examining it, and the European Union must take a stance on it.

Getting back to the trade agreements, we have not had any meaningful discussion on them and I have little faith in the Taoiseach and whatever other of the Ministers go there because we seem to be the good boys of Europe. We do whatever they ask. Whatever they want, we will merely sign up. We are the good boys in the class. Where is our thanks? I will not use the word, which starts with an "s", that is our thanks, but that is what we get. We saw what we got in the strong talk after Brexit and the threats that were made to the British people on what to do. We need to assert ourselves. We need to be able to be a proud country with a record of neutrality and of standing up for ourselves and our people, which is the Government's duty and the duty of every elected Member of this House. I commend the Seanad on the motion it passed recently, but we must reaffirm that we are a country in our own right and expect to be treated so.

Moving on to Brexit and the possible implications, which, as the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, has just arrived, I believe the budget did not address. There was little or no Brexit-proofing in the budget. We had our eye off the ball as far as I am concerned. We remember the hard Border. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle and the Minister of State, Deputy Joe McHugh, will remember it more than anybody because they travel through that country. We had great freedom in recent years to travel across the Border to anywhere without the long checkpoints, searches and whatever else.

Only two weeks ago, I travelled from Croatia into Bosnia-Herzegovina on a new motorway, most of which was funded by the EU which was great to see as it was badly needed in that country for access. Going into Bosnia-Herzegovina, we met the hard border with the European flag flying alongside the Croatian flag, and we were an hour on a bus. Every passport was taken off the bus - 52 of them - and brought into the checkpoint and scanned, and there were delays. Can Members imagine that happening again in Newry, Aughnacloy or any of the crossing points? This is what we are faced with and what we are not dealing with. We will be a pressure point for access to Britain.

We are not dealing either with the issue in the south east, the port of Rosslare. Those in the export and haulage sectors are most concerned because much of the produce from Ireland's agricultural sector depends on them as it travels to Rosslare, across to England and from there on. There are good arrangements with hauliers and contractors on both sides such that now not only do lorries with drivers embark but also only trailers and containers which are taken off by a sister company and brought through England and on to France and elsewhere. This is significant. Over 70% of our exports could be to outside of the EU if the British Prime Minister, Ms Theresa May, presses that button, engages the treaty article and implements Brexit. It is vital.

Take the mushroom sector, which is big in my county. It is big in Monaghan, and Tipperary seems to be one of the largest mushroom producing counties. Two or three big businesses involving 30, 40 or 70 jobs have gone in recent weeks. They were struggling anyway with competition from Poland and other countries due to low wage costs there, and now this is a step too far. They just could not keep pumping money into a loss-making situation. I have sympathy for them, many of whom are good friends of mine and who have given good employment. They set up this business, had tough times and worked hard at it. It is nearly like how dairy cows have to be milked regularly in that the mushrooms have to be picked regularly too. They do not wait for a five-day week. The flushes come in and they have to be picked properly and to a high standard. Now the producers are facing a perilous situation. I note the Minister of State, Deputy Joe McHugh, is laughing. I do not know whether he is laughing at what I am saying or laughing at something else, but it is no laughing matter. It is very serious. It involved significant employment in Tipperary, significant payment of rates and a significant service sector serving the mushroom plants, with construction, maintenance and delivery to and from the plants and the use and transportation of by-products as well to the highest standards. It has been wiped out before our eyes. The impact on the mushroom sector is merely one salutary lesson that we should take from Brexit.

Every other agriculturally based sector, the haulage sector and all kinds of jobs and exports will be devastated and the Taoiseach will merely go and sign up - "How much, Sir? Three bags full, Sir. I will sign it." - and come home again. That is what we, the yes men of Europe, have been doing and it is time we stood up and asserted ourselves. It is time we had a proper Brexit impact analysis and deal with it at EU level as well. I do not have much faith in the Taoiseach because history has shown us. We were going to burn the bondholders, according to the former Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mr. Eamon Gilmore, and we laid down, tickled their bellies, saluted them and said they were great people. We are still doing the same. We are merely walking blindfolded towards the implementation of Brexit. We will have to consider opposition with the bureaucrats because they are only threatening and intimidating bully boys, and it is time that they learned. They have not learned anything from what happened with Brexit. They should have sat up and paid heed, not threatened an all-out cut-off and serious repercussions and reassessed where Europe is going. The project was a good project when it started out but sadly it has lost its way. It has got too big, a bit carefree and a bit intimidating of the small nations, and we need to re-examine it.

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