Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to get the opportunity to talk on this very serious and important matter facing our country. At a presentation in Buswells, IBEC informed us this will seriously affect the regions, as it calls them - I call them rural areas and the farming community - but it may not affect areas around Dublin as much. As Deputy Fitzmaurice said, I do not know how we can avoid a hard border, but I hope we can.

We need our best team to take into account all the ways farmers will be affected if we do not maintain the markets we have had up to now, or at least to maintain most of them. The farming industry is at a crossroads. It will be very hard to maintain farming as we know it where farmers were proud to hand down the farm to their offspring and for them to continue to do the same. There will be a burden on their shoulders to do just that. They need every support. We need to maintain trade with the UK.

As other Deputies stated, we will be severely affected if we have a hard border and cannot maintain the free travel area. I do not know how it will be achieved. We talk about Gibraltar and other places but will Europe and England listen? The English people voted to protect their borders. Given that Ireland is open to Europe, will we have people coming here to try to access Great Britain by crossing over the Border? There are many challenges to be dealt with and much work needs to be done. I am asking that our best team goes out and puts its best foot forward to ensure our interests are protected as much as possible in the upcoming talks.

This evening we had a presentation from fishermen. They say that if the UK takes back its waters, European fishermen such as the Spaniards will impinge more on our waters and further abuse the ability of our fishermen to survive in places such as Castletownbere, Killybegs in County Donegal and off the Dingle coast. Those people will have a much harder time if this happens.

An awful lot is involved and much is at stake for our country. As I stated, we are at a crossroads. Farmers are worried that we will lose the UK market. If the UK starts buying food or produce from other countries, farmers' ability to stay on the land will be eroded and rural areas that are struggling to survive will be further decimated. We cannot highlight enough the way farmers and those in rural communities will be hit. As it is, places are very badly hit. Down around the Ring of Kerry, many of the local parishes cannot field a team. They have to amalgamate to put a team out.

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