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

I am glad to have the opportunity to talk tonight about the North of Ireland. Even though we are furthest away from the Six Counties, it still concerns everyone in Kerry as much as it does the people of the rest of the country. Great progress has been made over the last 20 years, after the 30 years of bloodshed, loss of life and damage to communities caused by lack of employment prior to that. The wonderful people of the North endured that suffering for so long and we were all glad to see peace at last after those 30 years. We need to ensure that the people of the North of Ireland benefit from the progress made, and indeed from Brexit, because Brexit is a real challenge facing the whole island and we need to have a proper plan to counteract the challenges that it poses.

Seeing the man detailed by the English Government to conduct negotiations, David Davis, contradicting himself on the public stage is not helpful in allowing the ordinary people to understand, or to have faith or confidence in, what is going on. With talks ongoing in Europe about the North of Ireland, it is not very helpful to see a man in this pivotal position contradicting himself within the space of a few days.

We have to acknowledge the great work and the great efforts of many people North and South. I know I will leave some out but I will mention a few. I will mention Garret FitzGerald and Albert Reynolds. In fact, when Albert Reynolds was Taoiseach he put his own life in danger by meeting members of the IRA in a hotel. One of his family members drove him to the basement and he went up to the top floor to meet people in order to talk about peace and getting the peace process going. We have to acknowledge that. Bertie Ahern also played a pivotal role. Deputy Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, John Hume and Ian Paisley all played a massive role in ensuring the peace which we have had for the last 20 years.

It is very important that we get a good deal for the North of Ireland out of Brexit. We should not let the North of Ireland suffer, because the Twenty-six Counties are entwined with it now. Indeed, businesspeople around Killarney, Castleisland and Tralee have relayed their concerns to me about what will happen to them and their businesses in the future if the challenge of Brexit is not dealt with properly. They stress that any solution must be favourable to the South of Ireland as well as the North. They say that, even as it is, they are losing massive sums of money due to the depreciation in the value of sterling. They are getting as much as 10% to 13% less for the goods and products they export to the North of Ireland and to England. That is very hurtful indeed. We need to acknowledge that and to see what we can do as a Parliament to ensure the survival of these companies, many of which withstood the downturn from 2008 to 2015.

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