Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I too am glad to be able to speak tonight on behalf of the Rural Independent Group and to deliver a statement on Northern Ireland. I note a number of things in the Minister's speech and how hard he has worked to try to keep everything on an even keel. I also note the news from Westminster tonight that the Prime Minister, Theresa May, has lost the vote by 309 votes to 305. She is losing all authority. While we are panicking here - we are not panicking, but we are worried - things could change across the pond. I respect totally the decision of the United Kingdom, its autonomy and its right to decide what outcome it will seek. Unlike us when we had to vote twice on the Nice and Lisbon treaties, the UK Government accepted the democratic wish of the people. We can never deny that to them or to any other democracy. We now know the implications. We had them here last week with the issue of the European army and everything else. This all started with the Lisbon treaty.

I respect what is going on in the UK, but I do not respect what Mr. David Davis was saying last week. We were after getting commitments and the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach had announced the agreement. I compliment the Tánaiste on the work and time he put in because I know he put in long hours. Mr. Davis then tried to unravel that and was saying that the agreement could be changed. It is completely unacceptable to use that kind of language when the stakes are so high. The stakes are high for the whole economy here in Ireland, especially for our farming sector. It will of course affect all sectors which interact with Northern Ireland.

My wife is from Monaghan, which is on the Border. All the gun clubs, sporting clubs, fishing clubs and hunting clubs in the area straddle the Border. There is no longer an effective Border.

I compliment the good work of two Tipperary men, the late Fr. Alec Reid and the former Minister and advisor, Martin Mansergh, as well as that of Martin McGuinness, God rest him, Deputy Adams, John Hume, Ian Paisley and all those who were involved, including the former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, who left his mother's graveside to go and tie up the deal. We must not lose the enthusiasm that existed for the Good Friday Agreement and was evidenced by huge turnout in the referendums, North and South.

We must not have a hard Border. I travel to Medjugorje every year and I see the border between Bosnia and Croatia. There is a new motorway, obviously built with the help of EU funds, on which a large border checkpoint has been built. It is an external EU border. If the EU is prepared to put in a big border post there, no one should cod us that it would not be prepared to put a similar one in this country. At that border post there are queues for a couple of miles with buses and so on and passports are checked. It would be unthinkable to return to that in Ireland.

We must work together. I will not lecture those in Sinn Féin who are present but it is a pity that nationalists in Northern Ireland have no representative in the United Kingdom Parliament. They used to be represented by the SDLP and, to a lesser extent, the Alliance Party. It is a polarised situation. Members know who the minority holding the sway over Prime Minister May is and that is not Sinn Féin or the SDLP or any other nationalist group. One has to admire the DUP for its tenacity and the way it has come to hold such power but I do not agree with many of its views on the issue.

I meet many farmers from Northern Ireland who do not want Brexit. The exports and imports of milk, grain and poultry and so on across the Border have a phenomenal impact and it is a huge sector. I have met sales persons from companies and machinery exporters in this country which are known all over the world such as Keenan Systems, McHales in Mayo and Abbey Retail in Nenagh. The order books of such companies are very much diminished not because they will not get the orders but, rather, because there is such uncertainty over Brexit in the food and farming sector right across the parts of Europe and beyond with which they deal. That behoves us all to put our shoulder to the wheel, as Deputy Michael Healy-Rae said, and have the situation resolved. The uncertainty across the pond is of no help to any parts of markets North or South. All the farming organisations are very worried, as is the education sector. There are so many cross-Border initiatives at risk, such as the Collins and Healy-Rae bus that brings people for treatment for cataracts. That bus will keep going and the Deputies will fill it and we will shame the Government into providing such a service here. However, we might lose the connectivity of cross-Border initiatives from Northern Ireland, which would be a fierce disaster for a campaign that the Deputies have rightly gotten going to allow people to see the light.

See this speech in context