Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I happen to know what the position is. An agreement has been reached with the European Council that Ireland will be recognised as having particular and unique circumstances which apply to it. The European Council has also recognised that it has no intention of returning to a hard border. Deputy Gerry Adams says there will be no tariffs, but he is not in a position to do so, given that negotiations on the issue have not yet commenced. I am telling the Deputy that even if there were no tariffs, we would still have two jurisdictions, namely, the European Union and the United Kingdom. There might be customs checks at Pembroke or Holyhead. If one looks at eastern European countries where border checks applied in the recent past, there were eight and ten hour delays. That is not what we want as it leads to inefficiencies, inordinate delays, paperwork, jobs issues and all the rest. We do not want that. We have a situation where freight and machinery can move throughout Europe on the basis of the invoices alone. That is the Single Market.

The British Government is stating it wants to have as close as possible a relationship with the European Union, albeit that is what we now have. The British Government made the decision that it wanted out of the Single Market and a changed status in respect of a customs union. These are matters which have not even been talked about in the detail that will lead to negotiations. The first issue to be addressed, as Mr. Barnier pointed out here, consists of liabilities and modalities, what that means and whether there is a figure. The second issue is citizens' rights and reciprocal rights, while the third is the border. We have all of these things while Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland want to be part of the Single Market. However, there is an aggregate vote, as a result of which the United Kingdom decided to leave and which is causing all kinds of trouble. In the next two and a half to three years an inordinate amount of political time will be taken up in dealing with something we did not wish for in the first place. However, we have to respect it and deal with the consequences.

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