Séamus Healy (Tipperary, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2019. As other speakers have stated, this is a Bill everyone hopes will not be needed and will not be implemented. It is emergency legislation. There is certainly much worry and concern in the country regarding what might happen if Brexit occurs, whether that is no-deal or a softer type of Brexit. There will certainly be difficulties for Ireland in either case. I think it is late in the day to be bringing this legislation into the Chamber. It is now a very tight timescale. I wonder if there is actually enough time for proper consultation on this Bill. I note that other European countries that will be affected by Brexit, but not anything like as badly as Ireland, have already got their legislation in place for some months now.

Many of the provisions in the legislation are obviously necessary and many are not controversial. That includes areas such as pensions, student supports, healthcare and the common travel area, which will now be put on a statutory footing. That is an important element, particularly as more than 500,000 people born in Ireland now live in Britain. Various parts and provisions of the Bill are reasonably straightforward and non-controversial. Sometimes, however, what is not in a Bill can be as important, and perhaps even more important, than what is in a Bill.

Two elements in the legislation stand out for me. The first is what appears to be, or amounts to, a corporate bailout aspect to the Bill, with serious grants and support. On the other hand, there is no quid pro quoand no supports outlined in the Bill for workers who fear losing their jobs, for lower paid workers or for social welfare recipients. I say that because in the last major crisis in this country, the economic collapse in 2007-08, what effectively happened was that ordinary families were made to pay for the burden of that collapse. It was not of their making but they paid for it through austerity, reductions in the minimum wage and reductions in social welfare. Many of those reductions have not been reversed since. Those are two areas that need to strengthened and dealt with. Retail Ireland warned recently that in the event of a hard Brexit retail prices could rise by as much as 45%. Even a softer Brexit would lead to significant price increases.

There is nothing, however, in this legislation to protect living standards. Those living on State pensions and other social welfare payments, as well as low-paid workers, would be very badly hit in that situation. People in those categories spend almost their entire income on everyday purchases, including food. Price rises will have to be matched, at a minimum, with increases in pay and welfare payments. The minimum wage must be sharply increased. This legislation, omitting such provisions, demonstrates to me that this Government has a continuing bias towards the wealthy in our society.

Trade unionists and other activists must not allow this crisis to be dumped on workers and the poor in the same way as the last one. If that happens, I believe people will be on the streets and there will be pickets. Grants to businesses, as provided for in this legislation, must be made conditional on a number of things. It must, firstly, be made conditional on lay-offs of employees being ruled out. It must be also conditional on the freezing of prices and increases in the minimum wage and social welfare payments.

The very wealthy have come through the most recent crisis that we had and now have billions of euro more than they had even at the height of the boom. The Government continued to give hundreds of millions of euros to very wealthy people in the past three budgets and I believe that should be clawed back. Moreover, since the most recent crisis, the EU owes Ireland billions of euro due to its insistence that Irish citizens bail out private investors in private banks. The British Government and the European Union must be told that there will be no hardening of the existing Border. However they sort it out between themselves, no hardening of the Border will be tolerated by Irish people. The existence of any border is an affront to Irish sovereignty and to the sovereignty of the Irish people as expressed in the 1916 Proclamation and by the first Dáil. The imposition of a hard border by Britain, the EU or the Government will be met by mass mobilisation. Hardening of the Border will simply not be accepted. I also believe that Britain should be told that there will be no dumping of radioactive waste on the island of Ireland. It appears that the UK Government has earmarked a site in the Mourne Mountains for this purpose.

The problems now arising due to Brexit are consequences of the failure to create a united and sovereign 32-county Ireland. The danger to Irish people of allowing part of the island of Ireland to remain under British sovereignty now and in the future could not be clearer. The UK Supreme Court found that there is no compulsion on the British Government to even consult the Northern Ireland Assembly or Executive about removing the Six Counties from the EU. Of course, any question of consulting this Parliament did not even arise. The 1916 leaders were right. We should ensure that a 32-county sovereign Republic is built and we should set our sights on that from now on.

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