Dáil debates

Tuesday, 9 April 2019

Pre-European Council Meeting: Statements

 

5:05 pm

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The holding of the EU summit tomorrow is essential, but it is nonetheless a statement on just how badly the Brexit process has proceeded in the past three years. Two weeks after the date on which the United Kingdom was due to leave the European Union, there are some hopes something may emerge at Westminster which will be acceptable to the European Union and can win the support of a majority in the House of Commons. The passage last night of legislation designed to make a no-deal scenario less likely was very welcome. However, in concrete terms, it has achieved little beyond reaffirming what has been clear since January - the opposition of the House of Commons to a no-deal Brexit. We are still confronted by the major issue of for how long the process can carry on and what the final permanent relationship with the United Kingdom will be. There is no more clarity on this issue today than there has been at any stage and new concerns have arisen about various options on the length of any new extension which might be agreed to tomorrow night.

It has been Fianna Fáil’s consistent position that the damage threatened by a no-deal Brexit would be too severe to allow it to happen. We have, therefore, argued for and strongly supported the flexibility shown by the European Council at the last summit, at which it was clear there was tension between those who were emphasising the need for the European Union to move on from Brexit and those who were emphasising the need for further patience and openness to a potentially longer term extension. The risk that impatience would lead to a rapid no-deal Brexit was real. Therefore, it was very welcome when key leaders compromised and accepted the need to prevent a Brexit crash-out on 29 March, even if it meant more uncertainty.

What was supposed to be the final Brexit summit tomorrow is highly unlikely to be so. The task for the summit, as determined by President Tusk, is to consider how much time the British Government should be given to reach the point where the withdrawal agreement can be ratified and an amended political declaration can be sought. Obviously, the best outcome for us would be for the United Kingdom to either hold a referendum to remain or to quickly ratify the agreement and seek a much closer connection with the European Union than the free trade agreement proposed last year.

It has been established for some time that simply reaching an agreement with the British Government is not enough and that most speculation about voting in Westminster is nothing more than speculation. Therefore, there are many legitimate points of view on the length and scope of an extension. We support the idea of offering any extension required to enable a process which has a credible chance of reaching a concrete conclusion. Whether it be a short or a long extension or the sort of flexible extension which President Tusk has proposed, it remains absolutely the case that the European Union should do whatever it takes in the context of an extension to avoid the damage of a chaotic Brexit.

It is, however, important for Ireland to acknowledge that an extension which requires the United Kingdom to hold elections to the European Parliament carries a potentially dramatic downside which we need to help to manage. A long extension may be the best option, but let us not pretend it is an easy option. The opinion of President Macron and some other leaders that such a scenario threatens to destabilise the elections and radicalise some contests is one we have to take seriously. Therefore, if the summit agrees to maintain the demand for the UK to hold the elections, it must also agree some initiative to tackle the backlash.

The threat from extreme forces and radicalised anti-EU rhetoric is one which must not be ignored and it must be challenged. It has been suggested that the elections could be avoided even if the withdrawal agreement has not been ratified if the United Kingdom were to adopt some measure such as a referendum to ratify an outcome and this brought with it a certain conclusion to the Article 50 process. We have not seen any legal opinions on this and alternative scenarios, but it is one which we would support if it were legal and it could avoid undermining the European elections. Those elections are more important than they have been at any stage in the past 40 years. They should be a direct fight between those who believe in the European Union and want it to work better for their citizens and those who seek to undermine it and have opposed it relentlessly. The elections should be about where we go once Brexit is finished, and anything which can make this happen should be endorsed by Ireland.

I would say, as an aside, that if it is the case given recent reports that Fine Gael intends to campaign on the basis that people should vote Fine Gael to, as it were, back the backstop, it would be almost breathtakingly cynical. Given the cross-party support and lobbying for Northern Ireland from even before the early negotiating guidelines were drawn up, any attempt to exploit European Union solidarity with Ireland for partisan interests would simply confirm that for this Government, politics always comes first.

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