Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is odd that we are debating the most recent European Council meeting on the same day it is announced that the next meeting will decide the negotiating strategy for Brexit. I hope we can have a meaningful debate on Brexit before the British Prime Minister, Mrs. Theresa May, sends her letter to the Commission next week. It is important that we have an opportunity to have a debate, and not simply statements. The EU Council did not discuss Brexit and, therefore, it is not proper for us to raise it, although everybody who has contributed to the debate so far has referred to it. It is not the proper forum and ten minutes is not enough time. We have used Taoiseach's Questions, as we did earlier, to tease out what is happening on a day-to-day basis to ensure the one island that will be uniquely impacted by Brexit is protected in so far as possible by the unwelcome exit of the UK from the EU. Will the Ceann Comhairle, as chairman of the Business Committee, make sure we have such a debate?

I have met scores of politicians from Britain and across Europe and everybody says positively that the unique situation in Ireland is understood but my fear is that while that is all well and good, when we dig down, it is clear that the overarching objective of the remaining 27 member states, which I have stated on the record previously, particularly the core members such as Germany and France, is the preservation of the "European project", as they call it. It has been at the heart of German political thinking and policy since the Second World War. Whatever they say, they are willing to impact negatively on their own economy. They will take whatever measures they need to ensure the viability and sustainability of the European project even it is damaging to their own interests, never mind our interests. To put it in its crudest sense, their objective is to ensure the position of the UK post-Brexit is demonstrably inferior to the status quo. Pour encourager les autres is part of it but they want to make it crystal clear that this will be the result of exiting the Union.

That position is one that poses remarkable dangers for us. We will have collateral damage in that, whatever goodwill there is for us.

I will take the few minutes I have to talk about the subject matter about which we are supposed to be talking, the last European Council meeting. At the very top of the pile of the conclusions was the reappointment of President Donald Tusk in his role as President of the council for the next two and a half years. There was speculation that our own Taoiseach might have sought that role as his next migration and may have been disappointed that he will have to stay on a little longer in his current role. He certainly seems to have recalibrated the longevity of his current position.

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