Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

When it comes to our statements on EU Council business, we might be better served in this House by having separate Brexit statements and statements on the actual business of the EU Council. Naturally, we all have a significant interest in the latest Brexit developments. We have to keep one eye on our phones because the landscape changes with such alacrity and regularity. It is equally important to keep up to date with a number of important policy developments that are taking shape at EU level. Our understandable focus on the impact of Brexit on Ireland has often diminished our focus on other fundamentally important issues that are happening in the European context. We may need to have separate time to debate these issues, which I think the Taoiseach has acknowledged previously.

With that in mind, and having regard to the other opportunities we have to speak on Brexit, I will make a few remarks on Brexit developments before I focus on other EU policy issues. We are, as other speakers have said, facing a very real prospect of a no-deal Brexit. Hopefully we can still avoid that. As I have said before, we need to keep our focus on the long-term goal of ensuring no hard border on this island. That has been the consensus in this House from day one. With the fear of the UK leaving the EU without a deal, there will be pressure from business when we come to the last minute to allow some level of border infrastructure in order to minimise the disruption of trade and commerce. We should not do that. If we allow any border infrastructure after a no-deal Brexit, whatever we allow to be put in place will be there forever.

We need to hold the British Government to its commitment to the Good Friday Agreement. It has said that it wants to retain an open border, and that commitment still applies whether the UK leaves the EU with or without a deal. Its solemn international commitment to the Good Friday Agreement endures. The Government cannot allow any future EU-UK trade deal to be agreed if that long-term relationship does not include an open border on the island of Ireland. In the meantime, the UK can and must choose trade policies that eliminate the need for a hard border. In that context, we in the Labour Party support the Government's continued insistence that there can be no return of the old borders of the past.

We already have a form of non-physical border control in some specific areas and it is important to talk about these technicalities. People from outside of the European Union need permission to enter this State. Someone from outside the EU could be legally visiting or resident in the UK and he or she could walk across the Irish Border but that would be unlawful, and just like many other breaches of the law, we enforce it through the normal operation of An Garda Síochána and the public agencies that we charge to do that job. Similarly, we continue to control the movement of diesel fuel across our Border. Fuel transports must be registered and we have a system of administrative controls and checks to ensure that those systems work. I cannot imagine that we cannot deal with these matters but I am mindful of the point that the Taoiseach has repeatedly made and that the Tánaiste made again today, that there are Brexiteers who would immediately seize upon the points that I am making to claim that this means we could use some form of administrative controls to maintain an open border even in the event of a no-deal Brexit. We need to be clear that the answer to that is, emphatically, no. We do not have technological solutions to cover the movement of livestock, the quality standards of food and consumer goods, and so on, let alone trans-border services.

The rules of the Single Market and customs union exist to allow trade to be as free as possible and we should not accept anything less when it comes to continued open trade on the island of Ireland, in line with the hard-won, hard-fought, hard-negotiated and publicly endorsed principles of the Good Friday Agreement. Meanwhile, when it comes to east-west trade between Ireland and Britain, we know that any kind of Brexit will be harmful to levels of trade. To be clear on the threat to jobs, the ESRI report from this week claims 80,000 fewer jobs would be created in the coming years in a no-deal scenario. That is one problem but there is no doubt that there is a serious threat to current jobs should our access to the British market for beef, dairy or other products be affected by tariffs or other barriers to the free trade that we now enjoy. Euro-pound exchange rates risk becoming less stable, which is bad for businesses. Their ability to plan and to make long-term investments would be compromised. Imports from the UK may become more expensive due to time delays, tariffs or more paperwork. All of these things pose a threat to thousands of jobs. Notwithstanding that reality, we made a conscious decision as a Parliament and a people in the Brexit negotiations to make only one red line for Ireland. Alongside that, as we come to the finale of the Brexit process, we also want open trade on an east-west basis and we should not be shy about promoting the closest possible trade with the UK.

In the time I have remaining, I want to make some comments on the direction that the EU is now taking based on the other matters discussed at the most recent Council. I warmly welcome the fact that the European Council has reaffirmed its commitment to the Paris Agreement and all the climate change targets. It is particularly timely, given that the all-party Committee on Climate Action will hopefully be reporting tomorrow on how we can make real changes to reduce Ireland's emissions from 60 million tonnes of greenhouse gases today to 33 million tonnes by 2030 and effectively to reach zero emissions by 2050. This is effectively the 60 million tonne challenge and it is incumbent on all of us to study the details of the report to be published and all of its recommendations to see how we can ensure that future generations are well-served by this generation and those targets are achieved. I note that the EU will have its ambitious long-term strategy for climate neutrality and we have to be serious about ensuring that its Irish component will achieve our part of those targets because failure to do so is frankly not an option.

I would like to mention the tripartite social summit that took place in advance of the EU Council meeting. The summit discussed new ways to strengthen social dialogue within the EU. Will the Government comment on the extent to which its deliberations informed the council's conclusions? I would like to hear the Government's view on how we can improve collective bargaining rights for workers in this country and across the Union, and strengthen social dialogue on the future of our economy. Labour is also pleased to see the creation of a new European Labour Authority at EU level. I note that member states may not be required to work with the authority as I understand that it will be introduced on a voluntary basis.

The Minister of State, in her response, might make it clear that we are committed to working within the guidelines and recommendations of the new European labour authority. If that is not the case, maybe she will explain why not. We also should seek to have that agency based in Ireland. Is that a bid that we have made? We came close to having one of the dislodged agencies from the UK come here. In fact we had an equality of votes, the Taoiseach may recall. Why not make a bid for this authority? I note that the authority will have a role in mediating on cross-border employment disputes. That should be of particular interest to Ireland, as the continued existence of the common travel area and the shared labour market between Ireland and Britain could lead to all sorts of new legal loopholes and disputes and it would be useful to have a mechanism to address those issues.

All roads seem to lead always and inevitably back to Brexit. When we discuss shared EU laws and regulations we are reminded of the body of shared rules that we have taken for granted that we built up over more than four decades, rules that we have shared up to now with Britain. I very much hope that the current political chaos in Westminster may yet deliver a sensible outcome, because a disastrous no-deal would be in the worst interests of the citizens of the island of Ireland and of the UK and of the EU as a whole.

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