Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

With the formal Brexit process now under way, and no certainty on what the outcome will be, Ireland clearly faces years of uncertainty. The exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union will, as I said previously, present this country and island with the greatest social, economic and diplomatic challenges it has faced since the Emergency. For some time, I have been calling for special recognition of the unique challenges faced by Ireland in the negotiating mandate from Mr. Donald Tusk and the European Council. I want to acknowledge the success of the Government's efforts so far on that aspect of the process. Major diplomatic work went in to securing it and I acknowledge that hard work. However, it appears that Spain has also used the framing of the mandate to table political points against the United Kingdom. This is the first of many hurdles we will face, some of which we have not yet become aware of.

From securing the approval of the European Parliament to ensuring Spain will sign off on any ultimate free trade agreement, there is so much that we do not know yet and so much that is outside our control. However, there are some actions the Government can take, through planning and through specific policy initiatives. Last week, the Labour Party published our own Brexit document. Throughout it, we detail the challenges we as a country will face and what we should do about it. It outlines 20 concrete actions aimed at protecting our society, economy and our highly integrated relationship with Northern Ireland. Every party has been talking about Brexit. Fianna Fáil went to the bother of recruiting a new Deputy, so it could appoint him as a specific spokesman on Brexit. Only the Labour Party, so far, is proposing a tangible action plan that would protect Ireland against a hard Brexit. We support the call made by our sister party the SDLP for special status for Northern Ireland. We supported a resolution in this House to achieve that too. It is an absolute requirement that the special status and circumstances of Northern Ireland be recognised throughout the negotiations from the start.

Brexit will fundamentally alter the relationship between ourselves in this part of the island, Northern Ireland, the UK and the EU. It will disrupt trade on the island, and could imperil the peace process. It will impact every sector in ways that cannot yet be determined. It will dominate public discourse for the next decade and present numerous challenges for all of us involved in politics on this island. Many problems will be resolved as they arise, and there are practical steps Ireland can take to outline specifically what we want to achieve, and what we must secure. Nine months on from the referendum, the Irish Government has only outlined in broad terms our objectives for the common travel area, preventing a hard Border, and protecting the peace process. We have yet to see the detailed actions and policy priorities that Ireland wants to see implemented and secured. The Taoiseach informed the House today that will happen before the end of the month. At a minimum, we believe a new protocol to the EU treaties will be required to recognise the common travel area, the Good Friday Agreement, and the unique situation presented by the Irish Border.

Europe must also adapt and we have proposed changes in the Stability and Growth Pact and fiscal rules, along with the implementation of a European pillar of social rights. I attended a meeting of all member parties of the Party of European Socialists in Brussels last week to discuss in detail how the fiscal rules issue can be addressed. Those rules are rigid, opaque and complex. Worse, they stop us from making the vital investment we need right now to prepare ourselves for our future, much less what will happen after Brexit. I raised this on Leader’s Questions last week and I thought I got the support of the Minister for Education and Skills. We now need to see the experience the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy Michael Noonan, have be brought to bear to bring about a change in the Stability and Growth Pact. If the Government agrees, then those negotiations should be under way.

We have also said that the €1 billion rainy day fund must be deployed now for investment. We need the infrastructure now. The Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, budget must also be protected post-2020. From an economic perspective, we have grave concerns about trade and employment. A comprehensive EU-UK trade deal must be a priority for Ireland. This will not happen in the next two years, however. In the meantime, a transitional agreement will be essential to maintain our deep and most valuable trading relationship both on the island of Ireland and with our neighbour in Britain. We have also called for a Brexit early warning system to be put in place. Such an all-island warning system would bring together the trade union movement, employers and other stakeholders. It would help to identify sectors and firms that are experiencing particular pressure points and are at particular risk as market conditions change, currencies fluctuate and so on. We are also calling for state aid rules to be suspended for two years from the date of Brexit. With this, a €250 million Brexit trade adjustment fund should be set up to directly support businesses suffering from trade upheaval.

Regional fora need to be established to help to foster and create new jobs, and to protect current ones. These fora could work in tandem with the early warning system I have outlined in order to Brexit-proof our regions. As the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, has dramatically illustrated, the impact of Brexit will not be uniform on the island. There may be benefits for sub-regions like the greater Dublin area. For some regions, like the midlands, the Border, and my own south-east region, it would be catastrophic. The regional action plans for jobs drawn up in 2015 and 2016 are already out of date because of the new circumstances we face. We need a full analysis of the potential and the risk to employment in our regions consequent to Brexit.

In a worst case scenario, with a hard Border between the North and South of Ireland, an arsenal of funding must be available to support those worst affected. It is no good to have rhetoric saying there will be a friction-free Border or no hard Border if Britain is outside not only the Single Market, but the customs union. Some sort of border will have to exist. Let us be practical about how to mitigate the impact. It could be catastrophic if we do not have clear plans for it. We should be very ambitious in what we need to do and begin to discuss it. The current European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, EGAF, programme is now undergoing a mid-term evaluation. Our Government needs to engage with the European Commission for the rules to change.

We also believe that the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs should hold public hearings on the impact of Brexit. I understand the Seanad has now set up its own Brexit committee, the Seanad Special Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, with Taoiseach’s questions functioning largely as our main way of finding out the thinking of Government and Government strategy as we emerge down the road of Brexit. The Oireachtas needs to speak with one voice, rather than through multiple committees.

We are also concerned at the prospect of the status of the English language being used as a bargaining tool or negotiating point, or even as a political football, before the final agreement is reached. The small spat so far, although we heard one former Tory leader almost launching the gunboats, shows the potential for political point scoring on these matters. Another colleague of his once described him as "a creature of the night". Other issues, such as English remaining as a working language, are important. The current designation of Irish as an official language also has to be protected in that regard. The head of the European Parliament's constitutional affairs committee, Danuta Hübner, a person I worked very closely with when she was head of the regional affairs committee when we negotiated the Structural Funds during our own presidency, has warned that English might not be one of the European Union’s official languages once the UK leaves the Union. That might sound like rhetoric, but it is something we must have regard to and address. To remove all doubt, the Irish Government should inform the EU that it also intends to notify English, as well as Irish, as an official EU language. There is no prohibition on having more than one official language. Indeed, many of our EU partner countries have more than one.

There is much to be done. We have to act in concert and with clarity on these matters, and the Taoiseach has the support of my party in supporting Irish interests.

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