Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

All of us are waiting to see whether the hopes of this week’s developments in Brexit will bear fruit and if a deal will emerge. We have all supported the Government in its efforts on this. The middle of October used to be harvest time for apple farmers in Tipperary. Hopefully, the harvest will be rich and we will get a deal. The kind of deal is the question, however. Cén sórt? We are waiting with bated breath.

At the end of the EU meeting on 21 June 2019, the EU 27 leaders briefly addressed the issue of Brexit. Members were informed of the state of play of planning for a no-deal scenario. We passed some legislation last night and recently with the Brexit omnibus Bill to prepare for this scenario. The Gospel tells us to have our oil lamps filled. We are not even half ready, however. It is rushed and that is the Government’s fault. There is uncertainty but we should be ready. We should have had a dual strategy from the start.

From reports today, Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, has told European Commissioners that he is optimistic of a deal and that the Brexit withdrawal agreement can be done today. Tá súil agam. We all wait and hope. Hopefully, it will be done because there will be no such thing as a good Brexit. An agreed Brexit strategy, however, is far preferable to a crash-out.

If the deal happens today, that will represent a massive leap forward in negotiations that it is to be hoped can be welcomed by everyone. What I want to see, of course, is the retention of Ireland's key and non-negotiable demands. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating. It is always in the small print that one finds what the issues really are. We must see a retention of Ireland's key and non-negotiable demands. We have to see the backstop. It caused a lot of trouble but we must have it. We cannot have a border. I have said this here every time I have spoken on this.

I questioned Mr. Michel Barnier when he was in this Chamber about what would be different with the Border with Northern Ireland at Aughnacloy, at Caledon, or at Belleek in County Fermanagh and a border like that between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, where a massive border checkpoint was built in the past eight or ten years. I have witnessed it, having been held up at it for hours. On the one hand, they were saying there would be no border with Northern Ireland and then they had this massive border at the other extreme of Europe, at Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. We cannot have a two-tier EU. That is quite obvious to me but Mr. Barnier did not answer the question. I said we would not have it. I hope we will avoid it.

Whatever emerges, we must have protection for the Good Friday Agreement. Above anything else, we must have protection for our fishermen and women and those within the agrifood sector who are being thrown to the wolves. I heard a debate on fisheries last week on radio. I heard Mr. Dermot Ahern talking about when he was the Minister dealing with the fisheries, and we lost a lot of fisheries. We had to have a token area, a so-called box, in which EU fishermen and others could not come to fish. We must protect our fishermen. We have to protect our farmers. Above all, we have to protect the Good Friday Agreement.

I always refer to the Good Friday Agreement because it was hard won by former taoisigh, the late Albert Reynolds and Mr. Bertie Ahern, people from Tipperary such as the late Fr. Alec Reid, who was a wonderful man, the former Aire Stáit, Dr. Martin Mansergh, and many others. The late Mr. Martin McGuinness and many others worked so hard for this. We got the agreement but I think we took our eye off the ball as regards the horrible events that we are seeing in the Border area. It happened recently with former Quinn executives, and others. The Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, must know more than me as she is closer to the Border than I am, although I go up there occasionally. We all know that racketeering and all kinds of extortion are going on there. It has mushroomed. They got a carte blanchefree-for-all up there. They should not have because now we see it culminating in horrific violence being perpetrated on those officials. There was the closure of Garda stations and RUC stations. There was nothing. We did not want to see massive checkpoints in Forkhill in south Armagh, in Caledon and every place else, but we needed a police presence and a Garda presence and we did not have it, and those people have been left to the mercy of the waves. Whatever emerges, we must protect the Good Friday Agreement.

We must certainly protect our agriculture. What is going on in agriculture, in the beef sector, is nothing short of a scandal. Today, I said to the Taoiseach it cannot be business as usual in the agri-industry because they have hoovered up all reasonable respecting farmers and pulverised them. As I said, they spent eight weeks protesting. The Taoiseach was not interested in them. The Taoiseach was more interested in marching in a gay pride march in Belfast than visiting the farmers on the picket line. The Minister, Deputy Creed, has a situation now where agreement was reached in Kildare. The bulwark of that agreement was that the injunctions were to be taken off the farmers and now we find out they are still not because the moguls, the beef barons, whom the Government is afraid of and kow-tows to, would not listen. They made an agreement that they would, and it was signed by all there.

The chairman of the so-called task force is an insider. I mean no disrespect to the man. He is a good man but he is a former Secretary General of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. He has his fingerprints over every rule that we have been trying to get amended and every restriction that has been imposed on farmers. How will he be fair and partial? He cannot be. We needed someone who would be fair and impartial and bring Meat Industry Ireland, MII, to book, to heel, and to respect the producers and farmers, but they will not. Independent Farmers of Ireland, which was at those talks in Kildare and agreed that document subject to consulting its members, met a week ago in Athlone. They were 600 strong. Its three representatives are not allowed into the talks at all. Who is the Government codding?

It cannot be business as usual. The Irish Farmers Association, IFA, Irish Creamery and Milk Suppliers Association, ICMSA, Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association, ICSA, Bord Bia, Bord Bainne, Teagasc - the usual suspects - fill up the room, pass the newspaper around, talk about it, break for lunch, and go on and get an agreement after several weeks that will be toothless, useless and fruitless. That is what has gone on for the past 40 years when the barons have been allowed to suffocate and strangle the beef industry. That has to change because the farmers know now that many of the farmer organisations have not represented them. They know that retired presidents of the IFA are now some of the biggest beef producer lots for the factories. They know who has been in bed with whom. They know what has been going on. They must have respect now that a new situation has dawned and the game is up for them.

We met people recently about the poultry industry and the shenanigans and skulduggery that has gone on there. The Minister of State is aware of it, so is the Taoiseach, so is the Tánaiste and so is the Vice President of the European Parliament, Ms Mairead McGuinness MEP. I refer to the corruption and blackguarding that has gone on there, and the same is going on in the beef sector. It cannot be business as usual. It has to be dealt with.

When added to that are the harmful measures adopted by the Government in terms of carbon tax, fuel price increases for hauliers, agri-contractors and farmers, and the rise in the cost of living here, life will be difficult for ordinary citizens here in Ireland. The Government remains as a threat to the rural economy, and I do not say that lightly. I and my colleagues in the Rural Independent Group negotiated for six weeks with Fine Gael and we insisted, and had it in many sections of the programme for Government, that every bit of legislation would be rural-proofed for the impact it would have on rural dwellers. The Government has not rural-proofed a sentence of any legislation. Bill after Bill has thrown those in rural Ireland to the wolves. The Government did that at its peril because rural Ireland has always been a strong supporter of the Fine Gael Party. It is a two-way street where Fine Gael supports the people and they will support the party, but Fine Gael has not. Fine Gael has abandoned them in their hour of need.

I have not even got to talk about the horrible issues that are going on in Syria at present with the Kurds. I have tried on a number of occasions in the House - the Government has not - to deal with the persecution of Christians and minority Muslim sects in Syria and elsewhere. What is going on now is a war crime. It is savage. The European nations stand idly by and assist in this by their absence. President Trump must be questioned to as to why he removed soldiers. I think there were only 50 soldiers but it obviously gave the green light to Turkey. We all know about the Johnny Turks and how they are armed, but the official consensus is that we could have this going on not too far from our own borders. I have gone to Lebanon and met the Syrian refugees. It is unthinkable that this can start again and that people who stood with the American soldiers and took down ISIS now can be wiped out like that.

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