Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

My party and I would like to be associated with the votes of sympathy to the family of the late Captain Mark Duffy and wish well the recovery efforts still under way for the remaining two missing members of Rescue 116.

I met in Brussels yesterday with colleagues from across Europe to develop proposals to amend the fiscal rules that are constraining investment, investment that is certainly required now but will be much more urgently required into the future. This week, my party published a Brexit policy paper containing 20 specific concrete actions aimed at protecting the Irish economy in the face of the real challenges that are now on their way. Changing the fiscal rules is one of them. Also this week, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and IBEC have called for specific policy actions. Over recent weeks, every party has been talking about Brexit, but in terms of publishing tangible actions, only my own party has now put that on the table.

Ireland faces its greatest challenge since the Emergency. What is required now are not the generalisms that I already heard this morning from the Minister but concrete actions that will be taken. We have put out sensible policy proposals that will make a difference. We are calling for increased investment in a targeted programme to support companies in sectors like agrifoods, which were mentioned already. Among the 20 proposals are a €250 million Brexit trade adjustment fund, the suspension of state aid rules for two years after the UK leaves the EU, an early warning system that encompasses business, trade unions and other stakeholders and a new regional action plan in the Minister's old area of jobs to take the new reality of Brexit on board.

Since last year I have raised the issue of the European globalisation adjustment fund a number of times and we still have no progress on that. We have already seen industries such as the mushroom industry devastated, and the beef and milk sectors will not be far behind if we do not have specific proposals for them. What contingency plans are in place, particularly for a hard Border and dealing with customs checks at our ports and our airports? Is the Government preparing to strengthen our transport links, especially our links to mainland Europe, and invest in our ports, and are there specific strategies to deal with these matters? We are calling for specific recognition of the unique challenges faced by Ireland in the negotiating mandate from the European Council to be provided by the European Commission, with the team to be lead by Michel Barnier. Specifically, does the Government support special status for Northern Ireland, which is a matter which has already been voted upon by this House? Can we now hear a concrete line of specific actions? The game has now become real. The actions need to be spelled out in real terms. We do not need more generalisations, but rather specific proposals to make a difference for our people.

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