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

This is a very important matter that has far-reaching consequences for every facet of life in Ireland and the debate on it is probably one of the most important that will take place during the lifetime of this Government. It will affect not just people today but their children and grandchildren. It is going to shape the future of this small nation.

Deputy Mattie McGrath was correct in singling out a number of people, particularly the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, who has been very "workpersonlike", as has the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs, Deputy McEntee. The Minister of State attended a meeting of the committee of which Deputy Mattie McGrath and I are members as recently as last week. I thank and compliment every one of the people from all parties and none who are members of that committee because they certainly put their shoulders to the wheel in the past couple of years, particularly as an awful lot of the committee's work deals with Brexit-related issues. We have met people from every sector of society from all around Europe, including the UK and Ireland, and all the different stakeholders. Even yesterday morning, I met people from the European Movement and the deputy Dutch ambassador. Every one of us is playing our part in respect of this very important issue. It is not a time to engage in party politics. This is a time for all of us to realise that we are a small nation up against a very large problem and the only way we are going to do our best in this situation is to work together.

A number of issues still cause grave concern. Every ten days or two weeks, I send bus loads of people up to Belfast to have hip, knee and cataract operations. Children are having their tonsils removed up there. It is ridiculous to think that in this day and age, we must go across the Border to avail of what is an excellent service. We cannot do it here in our hospitals but we can send people to Belfast and pay a private hospital there to carry out this work. It is beyond belief but the people are so grateful for the service that I see it as part of the service I provide to people in Kerry. The people I take on my bus are predominantly from Kerry. I am very glad I am able to do that but the worry concerns what the situation will be at the end of March. I cannot confirm or give any comfort to people awaiting operations because I have been told by the hospital is that reimbursement will only guaranteed until the end of March. After that, there is no guarantee.

I have looked at some frequently asked questions on the Road Safety Authority's website. One of these relates to a person living in Ireland who holds a UK driving licence and would like to able to continue to drive here after Brexit on the UK licence. The person was told that:

In a no-deal Brexit scenario, as a resident in Ireland, your UK driving licence will not be valid to drive here in Ireland. Prior to 29 March 2019 you could decide to exchange your UK driving licence for an Irish driving licence- the usual processing timeline for this is quite short- up to ten days. However, that may change in the event of a high level of demand for driving licence exchanges.

We are glad that many people from the UK live here and that people from the UK have chosen to retire here to spend their hard-earned money and pensions. They are very welcome and we are very glad to have them.

However, even those people who are driving on a licence might be adversely affected and there is also the issue of student grants. There are so many other problems facing us in a crash-out situation that, even at this late stage, I pray to holy God there will be an extension to Article 50 and that they will look at having another vote. Even at this stage, it is not too late to want that. If anybody came down from Mars today, landed here and asked what is happening and what this is all about, they would say, for God's sake, if it is going to be that troublesome, why not just go away and vote again. I know that we would have the humility to do that in Ireland if we were in that type of situation. Unfortunately, other politicians, who seem to be very arrogant, full of themselves and full of their own self-importance and do not ever want to admit they got anything wrong, although they made a mistake, are not willing to go back to the people and say they should have another vote. My God, I so dearly hope they will have common sense, that they will wake up and realise the mess they have created, and that there are only a few ways and a short length of time to do this.

In this House, whether it is Sinn Féin, the Independents, Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil or others, we should all be supportive of the Government at this time. It is not that we are going to be "Yes" men for the Government, but we will argue our points in a very sensible and workpersonlike way. We have to think about the bigger picture and think of Ireland united. That is the way we should approach this.

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