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

I am glad of the opportunity to say a few words on this important issue, which takes preference over almost everything else, and rightly so because it has so many possible implications. It creates so many problems for farmers and businesspeople, and virtually everyone in the country will be affected if we have a hard border. The British Prime Minister, Mrs. May, has many different movements and positions, and I am not just alluding to her ability to dance, for which she would not win any medals either. The problem is that when the English people voted in that referendum to get out of Europe it was basically to sort out the immigration problem that they have and that they still think they have.

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It is hard to understand how some sort of backstop would ever be accommodated by them. The MPs are clear there definitely will not be another referendum. That was what we had all hoped for, and I think I was the first person in this House to ask them to do that. It was the immigration problem that led a majority of people to vote to leave the European Union. If immigrants come here and want to use Ireland to get to England, if there is no Border or some sort of checkpoint and they get into the North of Ireland, it is easy for them to access England. It is hard to visualise how we are not going to have a hard border when that is what the English people looked for and voted for.

It will definitely effect business and jobs and even our fishermen who were badly served by the agreement reached in 1973 because it certainly did not favour them. Our fishermen will find themselves in a far worse situation after this. There is also the movement of cattle and of vehicles. Are we really prepared? Is this country really prepared? Is our Government making the necessary preparations for a no deal scenario? That is where we could suddenly find ourselves. I hope the Government is successful with a backstop for Northern Ireland because the United Kingdom will not help us. If the Government is successful it has to be a permanent backstop for Northern Ireland.

As my brother, Deputy Michael Healy-Rae, just said there is so much hullabaloo about climate change. We are only a small country. If we were to be totally emissions-free we would only make 0.13% of a difference in the world wide context. Consider Japan and places where one cannot see one's nose with smog and smoke, and yet we are closing down Bord na Móna and are considering stopping cutting our own turf. I spoke of this last week. We are trying to stop people cutting turf to heat themselves. What grander sight was there than to see the people out this summer out cutting turf, saving it, turning it and bringing it home. Now they are able to have their own fuel but think of that in the context of the people who have to buy fuel for heating, whether gas or oil, the cost of which has gone up. Home heating oil has gone up by 30%. Look at the cost of that on people. What was ever wrong-----

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