Dáil debates

Wednesday, 21 November 2018

7:30 pm

Photo of Mattie McGrathMattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to make some brief remarks on this important issue. The publication by the European Commission of the withdrawal agreement was supposed to provide some sort of clarity. We all waited eagerly for it, but I am worried about what clarity it has provided. Ar an gcéad dul síos, gabhaim buíochas leis an Tánaiste. I thank the Tánaiste and his officials because this night last week he gave us a very extensive briefing on the deal which was on the table which went on late into the night. Unfortunately we seem to have the exact opposite of clarity. The Commission spoke about how it hoped that the agreement would ensure that the withdrawal would happen in an orderly manner and offer legal certainty regarding when the treaties and EU law will cease to apply to the UK. Again there has been a near total absence of consensus on how this can happen despite the publication of the text.

A central question is whether the agreement itself is, as one UK Member of Parliament put it, dead on arrival. Did it ever have any hope of generating broad support? We know that the Prime Minister, Theresa May, is in serious difficulty and, at the very least, that the process will result in an even more deeply fractured UK with all of the consequences that follow on from that for this island of ours. The political bullets flying around Westminster are getting perilously close to causing untold damage here in our country.

In terms of the parts of the withdrawal agreement that affect us most, we of course have to look at the protocol dealing with the North. This element of the deal offers a legally operable backstop to ensure that there will be no hard border between North and South. Having listened to Deputy Brendan Smith, who lives on the Border, I am very familiar with the area myself and it would be unthinkable to go back to a border regime. The protocol also contains UK commitments not to diminish rights set out in the Good Friday Agreement and to protect North-South co-operation. That is very important. I was pretty pleased when the Tánaiste outlined the agreement to us because the Good Friday Agreement has to be sacrosanct. Too much hard work was done in getting that agreement for it to be otherwise. I salute my former colleague, Dr. Martin Mansergh, who was an adviser in that process at the time.

The agreement provides for the possibility of continuing the common travel area arrangements between Ireland and the UK and preserves the single electricity market, the SEM, on the island of Ireland. It would have been protected in any case. I was puzzled as to why the SEM was even mentioned because, as the Institute of International and European Affairs, IIEA, has pointed out:

The SEM is clearly established in national law in both the UK and Ireland. It is not the result of laws transposed directly from any EU-level directive. Thus the SEM as a standalone product of UK-Irish bilateral co-operation would remain unaltered in its legal constitution by the UK’s departure, as it is primarily the product of concerted co-operation between the energy regulators and government ministers in Dublin and Belfast dating from the early 2000s.

Regardless of all of this, the agreement is very much to be welcomed. The fact remains, however, that the economic impact on almost every other sector is uncertain. It is very uncertain across a wide range of areas. We are still unclear as to whether Mrs. May can get this over the line. We are also unclear as to whether there is going to be a Tory heave against her and even more unclear about what would happen should she fall and be replaced by someone who rushes towards a hard Brexit. A hard or crash-out Brexit should be totally anathema to any right-thinking person in our Twenty-six Counties at this stage. We are just not ready for it. We do not know the implications of it or the limits of those implications going forward. When one reads the hard-negotiated agreement which has been thrashed out and sees the annexes to it, the lack of agreement attached to it, and the issues to be dealt with much further down the road, one really becomes aware of the complexity of it all.

On top of all this we have the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, today saying that Spain will reject the withdrawal deal if it does not include a clarification in the text on future talks on the status of Gibraltar. I welcome the Tánaiste back to the Chamber and I thank him for having been here all evening for the debate. I heard no mention of this issue when we had that late night meeting this night last week.

Could the Tánaiste clarify in his reply whether this is a new issue? Will others among the 27 member states come up with different issues they want to sort out as part of this deal? That is to say nothing of the bind that our unionist friends in the DUP have placed on Prime Minister May. In reality, how could they be expected to do anything else? We knew all the time that they had her in a bind and their support is based on support for the union, and them being in the union. They are unionists who value the union of the United Kingdom and they will not be coerced or bullied into abandoning those principles regardless of the impact. If nothing else, we should know that by now. While there is something admirable in that, it is also veering very close to political recklessness.

One might say that this is not the end but it is the beginning of the end. That is where we seem to be. The withdrawal agreement is seen by some as a moderate compromise, with give and take on both sides. I believe that is what it is. By others, it is seen as an act of political betrayal and folly that has not been seen for generations. Abraham Lincoln once said, "I walk slowly but I never walk backward." To be fair to Mrs. May, that seems to be her approach too. She is attempting to bring the process over the line without dragging us back to a point where no agreement is possible or even desired. That would be a disaster for all of us. In fairness, I would say the same for our own negotiating team of the Tánaiste, the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, and the Taoiseach. This is far too serious an issue to be used for cheap political point scoring. I support the motion and wish it well.

There is only one Teachta from Sinn Féin. It is a pity that party does not take its seats in Westminster. It is also a pity that the Stormont assembly is not sitting given the importance of the process that is affecting the nation at this point in time.

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