Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an mBille agus os rud é go bhfuilimid i láthair anseo i gcomhair an díospóireacht tábhachtach agus práinneach seo.

Fianna Fáil supports this legislation and will be facilitating its swift passage through the Oireachtas. While an extension to the Article 50 process seems likely, this legislation still needs to be in place. However, Fianna Fáil does not in any way welcome the delay in its publication and the general evidence of the fact that Ireland is not ready for Brexit to occur in 30 days' time. There are many Brexit preparations under way but no one can seriously claim that businesses and communities will be fully prepared on 29 March.

At the most basic level the Government has not answered the simple question of what will happen at the Border on 29 March if there is no deal. We have been repeatedly told what is not being contemplated or not being planned but, equally, we have been told that a hard, no-deal Brexit is the hardest of all possible Brexits and will cause serious disruption. This argument is the core argument in favour of the continued North-South alignment which every party in this House supports. We have heard entirely contradictory statements made by the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross. According to the Taoiseach, the Army may be sent to the Border. According to the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, there may be security checks. According to the Tánaiste, there are no such actions either likely or being considered.

TheFinancial Timesreported yesterday that the British Cabinet has agreed a tariff schedule to be lodged with the World Trade Organization, WTO, on 29 March if there is no deal. Tariffs will only be imposed in two areas. The first of these relates to certain specialist metal parts and involves little exposure for Ireland. The second, however, relates to agricultural products and strikes at the very heart of our most exposed industry. We need clarity and we need it now. Officials in every Department have scoured through Irish and European law in order to draw up lists of actions which are needed because of Brexit under all scenarios and this legislation is one of the actions. It is not credible for the Government to claim it has not studied what might happen or not happen at the Border on 29 March.

Today is obviously one on which the ongoing drama in London will be the principal focus for everyone who understands the seriousness of the Brexit mess. There is no clarity likely for some time and no one has any real idea what deal is capable of being ratified. As Fianna Fáil has been saying since long before the Government accepted the need to plan for a no-deal scenario, we must be ready for whatever happens. While a no-deal Brexit may formally happen in 30 days’ time, it is actually already under way.

Businesses throughout Europe that export to or through the UK, as well as those whose supply lines require importing from or through the UK, are already dealing with contingencies. Orders which will not be completed before 29 March are frequently being delayed or subject to a legal qualification making completion subject to a deal being in place. In fact the customs authorities in countries such as Denmark are already notifying companies of new declaration requirements on shipments after 29 March.

As such, the legislation before the House is potentially some of the most important that we will consider during the lifetime of this Dáil. It could equally never have to come into force and be nothing but a footnote in the story of Brexit’s impact on Ireland. There is no option. This legislation is needed and we must pass it. While Sinn Féin and others have condemned Fianna Fáil for not collapsing the Dáil in order that we would today be in the middle of an election campaign, my party remains absolutely of the belief that it is the duty of this Dáil to deal with Brexit as best it can. However, no one should have to put up with the ridiculous and self-serving claims we have been hearing from Government Deputies to the effect that this Bill is a great achievement which shows that Ireland is ready. The only thing we know for certain is that this legislation is extremely late and that there is effectively no time for it to be properly reviewed by the Oireachtas. There are 30 days left before the legislation may have to come into force. There is no time to hold the detailed public hearings to which legislation of this type should be subject and the Opposition, which the Government seems not to remember does not have hundreds of sectoral experts available to it, can only review it in the most basic way. It is simply not true - the Taoiseach and Tánaiste have claimed otherwise - that there has been proper consultation and that the legislation is being produced as soon as possible. The discussions with parties have involved little beyond what was already public and has been about information rather than actual consultation.

Far more significantly, Ireland appears to be one of the last - if not the last - countries in the EU to publish its Brexit legislation. Certainly, it is the last country with a major exposure to Brexit to be at the stage of rushing to enact basic transitionary legislation. The Netherlands published its legislation on 16 November last year. France published its no-deal legislation on 18 October and passed the first measure on 7 November. The Czech Republic passed its legislation in January. The Irish legislation was published less than a week ago. Our Government finally published a contingency action plan a few days before Christmas and it has rightly been criticised for the gaping holes in that. In contrast, the French Government agreed its plan last April.

This legislation has also been published without the sort of supporting documentation that is available in other countries. The explanatory memorandum is short and there is no sector-by-sector documentation explaining the short, medium and long-term impacts of different measures. The economic impact of a no-deal scenario will be up to twice as damaging as was estimated for the deal agreed in December. The Department of Finance has made a more positive estimate than the Central Bank, which has stated the impact of a no-deal Brexit will be more severe and more quickly felt than under the Government’s scenario.

No one is questioning the need to take any of the steps contained in this legislation. However, we very much question the failure of the Government to provide a credible assessment of how significant these measures are in the context of previously announced estimates. Has the Government sought to quantify the specific economic impact of this legislation? Will it reduce the impact of a no-deal Brexit as previously projected or is it only an important but relatively minor measure? These are questions which we expect a clear answer on from the Government during the progress of this legislation. Equally, we need to know what further legislation may be required and the timescale for it.

The Opposition has no information available to it about the current status of negotiations other than what is already in the public domain. While there are clearly significant discussions under way, with the British Attorney General concerning a legally significant reassurance about the non-permanency of the backstop as currently drafted, no details about this are known. Attorney General Cox visited Dublin and Brussels and held lengthy meetings. Something significant is being negotiated, our Government is involved and the obvious intention is for this to come to a head in the next fortnight. The fact that there have been no leaks of the details being discussed could be either a good or a bad sign - no one outside the negotiation knows. Following the debacle of December 2017, when a leak by our Government nearly torpedoed the political declaration and did torpedo relations with Northern unionists, Brussels has successfully managed to impose greater restraint on Dublin.

It has been clear for some time that everyone understands that a no-deal outcome is the worst of all outcomes. This appears to have been the substance of the call made by the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, to the Taoiseach in January. It was at the core of all subsequent discussions with the Council and Commission and was behind the briefing in recent days about an extension.

Some form of an extension of the Article 50 process appears to be the most likely outcome in the coming weeks. However, there is a serious question regarding for how long this extension will be and whether there will be any conditions attached to it. It has been the position to date that any extension to the Article 50 process should be based on real progress achieved and in order to implement already formed outcomes. It may well be that there is no alternative to moving to a position where there will be an extension without any clarity about how the process will end. We should at least have a bit more openness about what is going on, however.

Yesterday, it was reported that our Government might seek a nine-month extension because it would allow it to call an immediate election. This was backed up in the Financial Timeswith a direct quote to this effect from an anonymous Fine Gael Minister. Last year, Fine Gael Ministers tried a number of ways of collapsing the Government during sensitive Brexit negotiations. Since then, it has become clear why the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, and the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, were so eager to have an election. I hope we are not seeing a return to this type of cynical game-playing.

In the coming weeks, we need to see far more detail about specific aid packages for different sectors and how quickly they are to be made available. There are no funds for this extra aid contained in the appropriations currently before the House. Fianna Fáil will facilitate any reasonable proposal from the Government for extra Brexit-related aid. However, the first step required is for the Government to outline what it wants. If the plans are ready, as the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade stated yesterday is the case, then the Government should publish them and seek support for them.

The Taoiseach took time out from his recent trip to the EU-Arab League summit to claim that the Opposition in general, and my party in particular, are "sniping at the sidelines". On one level, this is simply the Taoiseach confirming yet again that he does not believe anyone should ever challenge him. There is, however, a much more important issue at stake, namely, the fact that he does not appear to accept there are legitimate concerns about levels of Brexit preparedness. For a start, the Taoiseach should remember that Fine Gael is actually the only party in the House which has made no proposal about the future permanent status of Northern Ireland’s relations with the European Union. In July 2017, he stated that the Government had no intention of proposing anything other than a full reversal of Brexit and attacked those of us who had proposed different special status options. Perhaps if these special status options had been explored by our Government, particularly without the messianic self-regard which has occasionally broken out, we might not be stuck discussing a temporary safeguard. It should not be forgotten that everyone has repeatedly said that the proposed backstop is only temporary and will only operate while a final status relationship is being negotiated. The European Commission has confirmed that the EU treaties do not allow a permanent relationship to be put in place through an Article 50 withdrawal treaty.

I must point out to the Taoiseach, as well as to the Fine Gael Deputies and Senators who have been sent out to attack us, that Fianna Fáil has at length, and in many different forums, been extremely constructive in outlining a detailed analysis and proposals for action. This has involved an early and detailed discussion of the legal issues for Northern Ireland, the protection of North-South contacts and action on east-west matters. Most of these statements were made well before the issues involved reached a crisis point.

Fianna Fáil not only addressed Brexit during the last election, which was four months before the UK Brexit referendum, but has actually been calling for preparations for even longer. Exactly four years ago in February 2015, I stated on behalf of Fianna Fáil “the lack of a credible agenda for treaty revision means that it is almost impossible to imagine the Tories getting what they want”. I further stated, "It is Ireland’s duty to prepare for the possibility that Britain may leave the Union. We need to prepare for what our position would be on negotiating a new relationship in these islands."

Will the Taoiseach please put aside the snarkiness whenever the Government is legitimately challenged on the level and pace of preparedness, as well as stop trying to rewrite history? He has received a constructive engagement from the pro-EU majority in the Opposition which remains unprecedented.

In the explanatory memorandum to the Bill, the point is made that the Government is committed to protecting the Good Friday Agreement in all its parts. That is an objective which we all support. Equally, however, it is an objective which is threatened by far more than Brexit. The Good Friday Agreement is in a deep crisis in nearly all of its parts which was there before Brexit and will remain afterwards irrespective of what happens. The Northern institutions have been suspended for over two years since they were collapsed supposedly because of a heating scheme. The House should note that the most recent reports on that scheme claim that the dramatic losses predicted two years ago have not materialised because of changes introduced before the institutions were collapsed. The North-South Ministerial Council has obviously also been suspended, having had a declining impact in previous years. At the same time, a failure over seven years to expand the North-South executive bodies has left them a shadow of what they were intended to be.

East-west relations are at their worst for at least 30 years. Last year, the Taoiseach and the UK Prime Minister repeatedly went long periods without any interaction. The megaphone diplomacy which replaced it has achieved nothing positive for anyone. We need a serious re-engagement with the agenda of the Good Friday Agreement which goes well beyond the undeniably grave issue of Brexit. We need to restore some form of momentum to the reconciliation and anti-sectarian work of previous years. We need it to, once again, be a practical and not just rhetorical priority for our Government.

The blame for the Brexit mess, as well as the appalling damage it is both inflicting and threatening, lies with the "Eurohaters" in London who have captured a party which once played a positive role, particularly in the early days of the peace process. This does not, however, remove the right of Deputies to challenge our Government on issues such as the delay in key Brexit actions and the obvious failure to complete preparation before 29 March.

This legislation is clearly essential and must be passed as quickly as possible. At the same time, however, we need our Government to be far more open and transparent about what it is discussing in negotiations, as well as what it is proposing in aid for businesses and communities which are already being hit by Brexit and are threatened with much more to come.

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