Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

At the core of this is a Minister who has been asleep at the wheel for the past two years. There have been many issues that have been resolved. We facilitated the omnibus Bill which covers a wide range of issues. In regard to motorists travelling across the Border there are serious concerns because two things can happen. First, in a no-deal scenario, a motorist who crosses the Lifford Bridge post 29 March and does not have a green card could have his or her car impounded. Second, a policyholder who is not covered to drive in that territory and is involved in an accident will not be covered in terms of insurance. This could have been resolved. The Commission can allow Northern Ireland and the UK to be exempt from this requirement. We have questioned the Minister, Deputy Ross, at length on this issue. Deputy Munster has put question after question to him regarding what interaction he has had on this issue with this counterpart in Britain and with the Commission and he has come up short on all occasions. We have a number of weeks to resolve this matter. It goes to the core of the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement in terms of all-Ireland policies. We now face a situation whereby people crossing the Border will be required to hold an international insurance certificate. There are many people who will refuse to do that and there are more people unaware of the consequences of not having it.

The Taoiseach needs to intervene directly because the Minister, Deputy Ross, has been asleep at the wheel. He needs to raise this at the highest level with the Commission and get a solution such that people will not be faced with having their cars impounded or, worse, in the case of an accident which occurs outside of this jurisdiction, not having the necessary insurance to cover them, their vehicles or the third parties involved.

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