Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A counter-smuggling operation, indeed. This will have to be stepped up, and Deputy Burton is absolutely right about that. We know how to counteract smuggling. Animal checks are much more difficult. They can only possibly be done physically by vets.

It is our view that those checks should take place at ports and that the island of Ireland should be treated as a whole when it comes to sanitary and phytosanitary standards, SPS. That would, however, require the co-operation of the UK. All we can do at this stage, without knowing what is going to happen, is explore options. That is what we are doing and it is happening at official rather than Government level.

Turning to the question from Deputy Haughey, I was asked about the opinion of Chancellor Merkel and the position of President Macron. It is difficult for me to answer questions like that on behalf of other people. I will have a chance to speak in depth and one on one with Chancellor Merkel when she comes to Dublin tomorrow. We did not have that opportunity in Brussels some weeks ago. I did, however, have the opportunity to spend an hour or so with President Macron yesterday, both one to one and with our teams. I am heartened by the enormous support France continues to demonstrate towards Ireland. As President Macron stated, Ireland will never be abandoned by France or the European Union. If there is a no-deal Brexit, whatever issues arise will be seen as shared problems. Ireland will try to resolve them with our partners like France and the European Commission. It is not a question of there being a big stick or Ireland being put under undue pressure.

Reasonable questions, however, are being asked as to how we will protect the integrity of the Single Market and the customs union. We should not make the mistake of thinking that protecting the integrity of the Single Market or the customs union is just a case of having to follow some awkward European rules or unnecessary regulations. Our jobs and prosperity are based on our economic model and that is based on us being in the eurozone, the Single Market and the customs union. We cannot have that compromised.

I will give a small example, and this is theoretical and hypothetical. If, for example, the UK did a trade deal with the US and that brought hormone-treated beef into the UK or it did a trade deal with another country and that brought in chlorinated chicken or it did a trade deal with an Asian country with environmental or employment standards not up to Europeans standards, those products could enter into Northern Ireland from Britain, through Larne or Belfast, and could cross the Border into the Twenty-six Counties of the Republic of Ireland. There is understandable concern that they could ultimately go on from Dublin or Rosslare into France, Spain or Portugal.

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