Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this motion. It is agreed throughout the whole island that Northern Ireland deserves special status. I commend Sinn Féin on bringing this motion forward. When I was a young lad growing up, we saw troubles in the North on television, and people were actually afraid to cross the Border at one stage. In fairness, the work of Sinn Féin, the Unionists and other parties involved, but mainly the first two, must be commended for bringing peace to the North and a new way of life to many people. Irrespective of what needs to be done and the consequences of Brexit, we need to keep up this momentum. Irrespective of whatever effort must be made by the South and Britain, or America or whatever other parties got involved in the peace process, we need to ensure the path the people in the North are now on is protected. It is great to see that anybody can go to any part of the North at present without fear.

In the South, we are delusional if we do not stand up and tell the people the current scenarios. We are like substitutes on a substitutes' bench looking out at two teams playing but, unfortunately, none of the two teams seems to be ours. Europe will be trying to do the best deal it can for itself and the Brits will be trying to do whatever they can for themselves. We are going to be like piggy in the middle if we do not tell people what is occurring straight out. We must be honest and say that there is a serious possibility of a hard border. People talk about our friends but in 2009 we saw the way this country got crucified by Europe. We saw what happened with the promissory note. We saw it would be Frankfurt's way or Dublin's way. We saw a deal breaker but, unfortunately, it was not in the interest of the people in this country. It would be naive and foolish of us to build up something that may not be attained. From what I can see at present, a hard border will exist and we would be as well to try to resolve that issue. I hear people saying X number of people voted one way or another in the Brexit referendum. I voted against the Lisbon treaty twice in referendums but ultimately I had to accept the result of the vote. As with the British vote, which has resulted in the British deciding to leave the European Union, one must respect whatever democracy does. If we do not start respecting democracy, just as we question undemocratic practices in all parts of the world, we will be in trouble ourselves. We are currently talking about bringing power to Northern Ireland. There are many ties between England and Ireland. The Government talks about different Departments, Brexit Ministers and all the different ways we should be approaching this matter.

However, when I look at the Dáil, I often wonder whether the people here ever tried to do a deal at a fair in a small town years ago. We need to set out our stall. We need to say exactly what we require. Let us not cod ourselves. We are going around Europe and talking to various people, but they are not really concerned about us. They do not mind how Ireland gets on. Their business is to represent themselves in their countries, not to think about us. That is how they will approach this regardless of whether we like it.

A debate has to start. Plan A seems to be that we will look on from the dugout, see how Mr. Barnier and the British get on and sit with our hands in our pockets. What if doomsday happens and things go wrong? What will we do if tariffs are placed on Irish agricultural products? Will we wake up and start running around trying to find different markets? I agree with Deputy Bríd Smith, who said that we needed to tell Europe where to go, but it does not listen to people who tell it to do that. Instead, it tries to penalise people monetarily. That is Europe's way of hammering people down.

At the moment, everyone is on the road with plan A. We are hearing in every town hall and so on that Ireland is doing X, Y and Z. If it does not happen, however, we will need plan B. The debate needs to start on Ireland being a part of the EFTA or the like so that we can still trade with Britain and the EU. If we cannot trade with Britain, the loss will be too much. Let us be realistic - we will not pick up markets in other parts of the world overnight that will compensate for the loss to our agricultural sector. From what I have heard, Europe wants to give Britain a slap like a bold child in a class so that no one else will leave. Yes, it costs money to be in the EFTA and we would have no say in the EU, but we do not have much of a say at the moment. We are walked on in every way. If we do not do something, our economy will suffer a ferocious crash. Ireland cannot afford that, given what we have come through.

We need to lay out our stall and tell Europe what we want. In fairness, I do not see Britain having a problem with that. It has stated that it does not want a Border or tariffs, but the bureaucrats in Europe tell us that we must have X, Y and Z. We must start that debate and think of ourselves for once, not be the great buddies of Europe. Instead of patting people on the back and smiling at them, we would want to be giving them an odd dig in the ribs.

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