Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In this case we will have nothing to eat. We will be choked with food because we cannot export our agricultural produce. I do not like this language. The statement also says, "Brexit may cause disruption to a lesser extent in other member states". The arrogance of that. Are they sleepwalking? What planet are these geniuses on? The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Flanagan, deals with them on a regular basis, so perhaps he can reply to them at his point in the debate. This is bizarre. It is complete madness. If anything Brexit will have a greater impact on other member states, such as this country. That is as clear as the nose on my own face. There is no "may" about it. There is Theresa May alright, and this is the month of May, but there is no maybe about this. There is no potential disruption, but actual severe disruption occurring here in almost every agricultural sector - dairy, corn, equine, mushrooms, pigs and poultry - not to mention the political instability with respect to the North and the issue of the Border. I listed that in the pre-European Council statements, as we all did. It has a huge impact, and could have massive a impact if we are not careful.

I have memories of travelling the Border when it was a hard Border. There were armed checkpoints and customs on both sides of it. They had to be there as there was a war going on, but there was disruption. It was brought home to me only last year when I was on the way to Medjugorje - this is on the record of the House - on a bus on a motorway, a new development from the last five or six years. We stopped at a hard checkpoint on the motorway, which is a completely different experience. We now have a motorway between Dublin and Belfast. One can meander along the road to Aughnacloy, or the road to Donegal going to Belleek or around the Armagh Border in south Armagh. I was stopped many times on both sides of it. Now we have a motorway, and how on earth can we envisage lorries, buses and cars being backed up? On the way to Medjugorje, 52 passports on the bus had to be taken out and had to be gone through one by one. We were held up for 40 minutes, not to mention all the cars behind us. I have a real sense of fear of seeing that on our Border again. It would be totally unacceptable, totally unworkable and a total turn off for people travelling between the North and South, not only our own workers but also tourists and everybody else.

Part of the statement of the European Council also mentions the core principles which will guide the negotiating process. It mentions that any agreement with the United Kingdom will have to be based on a balance of rights and obligations to ensure a level playing field and that negotiations under Article 50 will be conducted with transparency and as a single package. If this occurs it will certainly be a novel practice for the EU. It will be a best seller. Terms like balance of rights and transparency are not words that automatically jump to mind when one thinks about the EU. We saw that with the banks, and how the European banks shovelled their money in here, bulldozed it in when our banks were bust, and then sought retribution. We started paying, and we are still seeing it, and my grandchildren will be seeing and feeling it. We saw the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, come back and talk about the €62 billion that was going to be written off for us. We did not get that, but we got plenty of threats and demands to pay up and shut up, and arrogance from the heads of the EU, and little empathy. The bondholders, many of them European, were let off scot free even though the bonds were insured. They were laughing at us, calling us silly, stupid Paddies who paid even though the bonds were insured.

People have been subjected to penury and have suffered the trauma of waiting on trolleys or going blind from want of an operation, and there are countless examples of these. I see references to balance of rights and transparency but these do not automatically come to mind when talking about the head honchos in Europe. They have handled this appallingly. The Minister is launching a document this evening, if it has not already been launched, and the Taoiseach is briefing some Members, myself included, about it. I do not want a fanfare, however, but real efforts to reassure people in the Border counties. I want real efforts to protect and support farmers and our flagship industry.

The Taoiseach announced that he might have a united Ireland in his bag before he retired and I would welcome that. It would be great and it has always been said that unionists would join us if we showed them the benefits of doing so in their pockets, and that they would be better off in this country. Maybe they would but there are many "maybes", and a lot of issues to be thrashed out. There were people who tried to force a united Ireland with the bomb and the bullet and they were also opposed to the EU, as they were to everything. If it happens, I do not know what they will be able to oppose. They will be naked before us all and will have no tangible issues on which to fight, only water and abortion.

It is more likely the interests of the big players such as Germany and France will continue to be prioritised and that small peripheral countries such as ours will receive the crumbs that fall from the table, even if they insist on calling it a feast. We have to be careful with language and optics. We have real friends in Europe and we have been good Europeans. We have been good classmates and supporters and now is the time for some payback for our people, for our business interests to be protected and for there to be no hard Border between the Twenty-six Counties and the Six Counties. We do not want the crumbs from the table in these negotiations because if we get them, it will have serious repercussions for future generations of people in this country.

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