Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

They might be but it is too late for that, unless the two Deputies submitted my name and did not tell me. They will not need subs anyway because they are able and capable and will be capable members of the European Parliament. I wish all of the candidates running in the elections well but especially those from the Independent benches. People are tired of party politics. It will also have been a huge relief to have heard that the European Council has reiterated that there can be no reopening of the withdrawal agreement. This underlines again that, at least for now, there is a solid enough commitment to the backstop and the rejection of a reintroduction of a hard border. People, farmers and businesses are simply fed up with the massive and destabilising uncertainty to which this process has given rise, particularly with our trade and export markets. We cannot persist in allowing this kind of damaging and frustrating process to be continually drawn out. That is particularly the case since we know that after even a good Brexit trade deals and new arrangements will take years to become bedded down into the new way of doing our business with each other.

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