Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I listened with great interest to Deputy Tóibín’s remarks. The situation we are in is less than optimal. I agree with the Deputy's point that negotiating through a third party will be a major challenge. Whenever a third party is sent to a negotiation, it is difficult to predict the outcome. I have previously thought that every angle had been covered in instructions given to a third party but then did not get the expected result. If one is not at the table, it is very difficult to control the unforeseen.

It is very important for this country to engage not only with our European colleagues, but also our near neighbour. Our interest is served by everybody using common sense here and those on both sides of the divide, the European leaders who will be negotiating, including Mr. Barnier, and the British Prime Minister, Ms May, and her team, not getting into a test of strength to see who will win. If that leads to a hard Brexit, it will have huge consequences for this island.

The other big problem we face, accepting that Border controls within this island would be impossible to police and politically unacceptable, if there were to be a hard Brexit, Britain would probably put the effective Border at the Irish Sea. If people think that unlikely, I remind them that during the Second World War there was free movement on this island. One was checked by security getting on the boat up in Larne or Belfast or wherever one embarked because it was known that trying to seal the Border was impossible.

There are two issue on which I would like to concentrate. The first regards the possible implications of Brexit for our beef industry. Of all our agricultural industries, beef is the most vulnerable. Brexit could have a perversely beneficial effect on horticulture should it become more difficult to import products than to use Irish products. However, horticulture is a very small though important section of Irish agriculture. It is a very important section of agriculture in the north of Dublin. The challenge for the beef sector is not that Britain will not have to buy beef. It will. It does not have enough. It will probably produce more beef because intensive farmers there will be allowed to use methods of husbandry which are not currently permitted in the European Union. It has been made clear in the documentation published by the British Government that more intensive farming, genetically modified organisms and so on will be allowed. The big challenge for us will be Britain importing beef from other countries. If the British market is flooded with cheap beef from South America, it will pose a major challenge for our beef industry. We must try to minimise this. The Government could try to get Britain to agree that health and animal welfare standards and the use of hormones and so on would not be acceptable in either the production or the sale of livestock. We must be creative, innovative, keep our eye on the ball in the negotiations and devise a way to ensure that we protect our premium product and retain our ability to get a premium price. It will be very difficult.

The other immediate challenge which seems to have attracted very little attention - I am delighted go bhfuil An Leas-Cheann Comhairle sa Chathaoir anocht – is the issue of fisheries. We should always look at the political dimension of a problem because that can be more important than the economic dimension. It has been said that Britain is not overly concerned about repossessing our waters because it exports the fish caught in those waters and imports different species of fish for consumption in Britain. However, that ignores a fundamental political reality. The last referendum on Scottish independence was won by a margin of 4% or 5%. The British Prime Minister, Theresa May, is a unionist and does not want to lose the kingdom of Scotland from the United Kingdom. While there is a great attachment to Northern Ireland amongst Conservatives and unionists in Britain, the union of Scotland and England is a fundamental tenet of their political being. The emotional responses we have as a nation are equally strong across the water. I saw manifestations of this during my time as Minister, in particular at the British-Irish Council. The British Prime Minister would not like Nicola Sturgeon to get one over on her and pass another referendum. It is not that it has to be won. It is known that 40% of the electorate would vote one way and 45% the other, meaning a small swing would decide the referendum.

It is my view that Britain will go for a hard Brexit on our waters. It will repossess the waters because there is more water around Scotland on its three sides than in any other part of these islands. They have the Orkneys, the Shetlands and the Outer Hebrides and that water extends way out into the ocean. In that circumstance Ireland immediately loses 34% of its catch, mainly from the north west. Furthermore, those other European countries that have fishing rights in those grounds will be looking for compensatory grounds. I asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, a question about this issue. He seemed to put the whole question onto some distant back-burner. I believe he is wrong and that from day one he should put on the table that in the event of the European Union losing these hugely geographically spread out fishing grounds, which are of critical importance to our fishing fleet, we will be looking for a total renegotiation of the Common Fisheries Policy so that Ireland will not be a major loser in this respect.

To be honest, I believe that in every adversity there is opportunity. I have been critical of all Governments, including Fianna Fáil Governments, that the deal done on fisheries from the day we entered the European Union was pathetic. Back in the early 1970s I believed, as I do now, that we never thought it would go to 200 miles and we neglected the potential of our seas in favour of agriculture and short-term money. That money is beginning to dry up for agriculture and will dry up more after Brexit with the withdrawal of the British contribution to the EU Exchequer. It is now time for Ireland to start planning if this is going to happen - and in my view it is likely that it will happen. We not only want to minimise the negative effect, we also want to see if we can turn it to our advantage and ensure that if we own 14% of European waters we get a lot more than the 4% of the fish quotas we currently have. I urge the Minister of State to urge his colleague to not see this as an afterthought. He should have been thumping the table from day one, saying that this is a likelihood and Ireland wants guarantees that the matter would be totally reviewed. I am out of time, unfortunately. In a lot of countries if there was a policy to return the coastal waters to the coastal communities - irrespective of nation, in France or wherever - and not have the super-trawlers taking everything I believe we would find a wide consensus across Europe. There would be an exclusive coastal zone for boats under a certain size as recommended by an Oireachtas committee in a reform cap. This would be much more sustainable than the present arrangement of allowing hunters in very large boats to do inestimable damages to a vital natural resource.

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