Declan Breathnach (Louth, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

For men and women of my generation who grew up in communities along the 300 mile stretch of border between North and South, a hard border was a hard reality. In my younger years living along that border it was customs checkpoints dotted along country roads to tackle simple items such as butter, eggs or sugar smuggling. Those were the days of false bottoms on prams, cattle often swimming across lakes or up sheughs and children cramming food into bicycle handlebars. These were ordinary families struggling to make ends meet who would always do whatever they had to in order to buy the essentials for a few pounds less and leave a few extra bob to feed those families. When the Troubles erupted those innocent barriers were replaced by heavily armed roadblocks. A wall of intimidation stretched from Derry to Newry, brick by brick, by violence. That was taken down brick by brick by a belief in a shared future, a shared peace and all-Ireland economy.

Today that shared future, peace and economy stands in jeopardy, whether we like it or not. It is with sheer disbelief and horror that the people who remember those days look on at this week's Brexit chaos. The idea of sliding over the cliff into a hard Brexit is difficult for any of us to fully comprehend. The impact of the recreation of a hard border on our island would be devastating on many levels, and many have been mentioned here today. We should not cod ourselves. For motorists long delays along the main routes would become the norm. Many farmers would be cut off from their main markets. The flow of goods between North and South and east and west would be blocked by a dam of regulations. We can only scratch the surface of what it would mean for ordinary working families because it is such a leap in the dark.

Donald Rumsfeld once spoke about known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns. I think that a hard Brexit falls in all three categories. We know it would be a disaster, we know we do not know just how bad it will be and we do not know just what other consequences it could have. We do not know what is going to happen. We do not even know what the British want and they do not know. A hard Brexit is an effort to unscramble an egg that was cooked 40 years ago. Members of this House have a special duty in times of national peril to put aside our various differences to work for the national interest. We need unity of purpose to ensure we avoid a hard border on our island. That does not mean abandoning legitimate criticism but it does mean keeping a firm sense of perspective and priority. The Government must ramp up its contingency planning to reduce our vulnerability. We should support an extension to Article 50 if the UK requests it. Buying time is better than building borders.

When the UK voted to leave the EU in June 2016. I believed and hoped that it would never happen. The sheer complexity of withdrawing and the consequences of it would have for our country seemed insurmountable. There is too much at stake, too much time and effort has gone into building something positive to throw it all away. I still hope that this is the case. Let us hold firm on avoiding a hard border, and help the UK to draw back from the cliff edge. The memories of coffins filled up with eggs and butter or mothers trundling prams full of sugar around customs officers looking the other way should stay that way: memories. I fully support the efforts of both sides of this House and all to ensure we do not go over that cliff edge.

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