Dáil debates

Thursday, 13 April 2017

European Council: Statements

 

11:25 am

Photo of Mattie McGrathMattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The 2017 management plan of the EU Directorate General on Agriculture and Rural Development states:

The last reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was agreed in 2013. Since then, significant developments have taken place:

First, falling agricultural prices have left farmers feeling highly vulnerable. Unfavourable terms of trade for the sector may well persist for some time.

I note that it is not a question of "may" but rather that they will persist. The plan continues:

Secondly, the Commission's 'Trade for All' strategy has led to an increased number of international negotiations which in turn increases the pressure on the EU agricultural sector.

Thirdly, agriculture and forestry sectors need to play a key role in our new EU 2030 climate and energy framework, as well as to respond to ongoing global challenges such as migration and the new Sustainable Development Goals.

There are huge issues here but the fact that - while probably an oversight - this meeting nearly slipped through without pre-Council statements taking place in the House raises the question of whether we are ready, thinking properly and focused. The head of Dairygold says that unless an EU plan to combat customs and tariff barriers is put in place, rural Ireland will be decimated. We can talk all we like about post offices, road traffic laws and other issues affecting rural Ireland, but this is a bombshell waiting to explode. It will explode if we fail to obtain meaningful respect for our vulnerable situation and, indeed, that of our counterparts in Northern Ireland who currently trying to form an Executive.

Regarding the North, we must push the Border back to where it should be in the first place, around Ireland as an island off the west coast of Europe, surrounded by water. Now is our chance. I believe that passionately. We must do so in light of the prospect of tariffs and barriers. I think of the Leas-Cheann Comhairle who travels to the House from Donegal and who passes through the North, crossing the Border at many places where there used to be controls. I recall all of the skullduggery that went on in areas along the Border, including smuggling and God knows what else. We cannot have that. We have motorways connecting everything now and the existing position has to be maintained at all costs. I note the implications of Brexit for EU citizens, which is not being dealt with properly. The EU has been blasé about this and probably thought it would never happen, but it has. It is time for the EU to pinch itself, wake up and smell the coffee.

This is coming down the track and it is not going to be derailed. There are huge issues and we need to get bang for our buck. We have been the exemplary Europeans and the good boys in class and it is now time we were supported by the EU 27 and got a bit of payback. Some may claim we have been supported well by Europe, but that is questionable. Nevertheless, if we are going to stay in the Union while our nearest partners go out, there will be huge consequences. That is not being engaged with properly. What is the point of EU Council engagement by Ireland if there is still a shortage of personnel in Departments to deal with the issue? This matter was also raised yesterday on Leaders' Questions. I ask the Taoiseach and the Minister of State, Deputy Dara Murphy, to outline what specific personnel have been put in place in Departments, what specific roles they have, what specific issues they have raised and what timeline of debate and discussion with EU counterparts has been set. We need a headcount on this to dispel the myth that they are not in place. We need to be told who they are, how they are earning their crust and what they are about to deliver or trying to deliver for our country. I see the Taoiseach conferring with his senior officials and I hope we get those answers, if not today in the Minister of State's reply, then in writing at a later time.

This is serious stuff. We have never been at such a juncture before. I was going to school when we joined the EU and while we have been there for better or for worse, divorce is here now. Divorce was introduced in Ireland a long time ago and I see there was a Bill last week to shorten the time to get one, but Brexit is a divorce for which we are not ready.

The two parties are going two steps forward and one step back. This is a divorce that is going to happen. There is a date and cut-off point. The article has been triggered, and it will be a very unholy and messy affair if proper planning is not put in place for it. It is kind of foisted on the couples without arbitration and without mediation, so now it is bitter warfare, to use the parallels of a couple separating.

I want to raise the issue that was raised by Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan, which is the financial contribution the UK was making to international aid and to different NGOs that are working in the most horrific of situations. I thank the Ceann Comhairle and Leas-Cheann Comhairle for allowing Deputies Noel Grealish, Michael Collins, Kevin O'Keeffe and me a debate this evening in Topical Issue matters about the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. That is happening and we are all turning a blind eye to it, or not turning our eyes to it, which we should be doing. I thank them for giving that time and hope that we get a good response from the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. A huge contribution has been made by the NGOs and almost €2 billion will be lost from that fund. I also have concerns, like other Members, that some of these donors are donating the money for their own benefit. It is not because of moral ethics or humanitarian needs that they give it. They are pulling the strings. Big business in Europe, including the bankers and all those in the big high-rise buildings based around the EU capital in Brussels and elsewhere are pulling the strings. The tail is wagging the dog of the EU masters. The big businesses are calling the shots.

There is an ongoing migrant crisis internationally, as we know. The inability of the EU to effect the international plan to deal with this has been dismal, appalling and a glaring example of how we have failed to handle humanitarian issues. The European banking sector is indeed in need of reform. It is stopping us from reforming ours. We know how bad ours is. German banks have community banking, as does Switzerland. Different models were put up for examination, and I compliment the Public Banking Forum of Ireland. We are not going to get a look in here. The pillar banks and the Central Bank, with its tentacles reaching in everywhere, are stopping that. People can get loans in European countries for 2% interest rates. We are paying between 4% and 7% here.

We are being destroyed as an economy by the greed and the control of the Union and what it is doing. That is maybe why we got Brexit. There are very good business-minded people who thought it would not happen, so we let it drift on thinking it would not happen and, all of a sudden, it happened. The gun is loaded and is ready for the gunpowder to be ignited and for the bullet to be let out. It will not be a silver bullet for us. It will be a nasty bullet for us. We are sleepwalking into it - pardon the saying, and I do not mean to be disrespectful to anyone. We are not giving the due diligence and due concern that we should be giving it here. We have Dairygold and big businesses like that that are world-renowned. They might not have the best of practices and might need to be investigated but they are flagship developments. We need to sit up and listen when they are concerned and when other Europeans are concerned about the European nucleus that wants to hold on to the power. They are being cajoled on an hourly, probably a half hourly or even on a by-minute basis by the big business in Europe.

We cannot be left with a hard Border, with an unfit for purpose vehicle for our exporters, for our road hauliers and goodness knows for so many other things. We are an island country. We export much of our produce both to the UK and to other parts of Europe and farther and we cannot have these tariffs. The European Central Bank, ECB, is still clinging on to an old model. The model is broken. We often say that if it is not broken, do not fix it. The UK has driven a coach and four through it. That is its democratic decision and there may be a good reason for it. It is broken, so we have to get that mindset away from the ECB and clinging on to that old model. The ship has sailed and if we do not get the life buoys and jump soon, we will all be left in the you-know-what.

European policy is directionless on a whole host of issues. I mean that very honestly. The migrant crisis is one of the issues. It is a very obvious, pertinent and timely issue. European policy is directionless and has lost its vision, certainly since the founding fathers and what they set it up for. The EU seems to care little about us lesser minions here on this side of Europe, who have been the good boys in class, have done all the rights things and obeyed and accepted everything. We accepted many directions here without even contesting them, when there are chances here, and this is still going on, for us to get exclusions and derogations. We do not even ask for them. We just say to pile them on. What do we often do? We add more to directives here to make it more punitive on our rural community and our people. Rural Ireland is languishing in the depths at the moment. This could have astronomical effects on it if we do not step up and do our job.

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