Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There have been two false starts, and, thankfully, they were false starts, for a British exit. They were 31 March and 31 October. If the Taoiseach were to be honest with the House, he would tell us that we were not prepared on either occasion. A month before the 31 October deadline, we learned that we had to rely on temporary facilities in Rosslare Europort, for example, because permanent facilities will not be available there until 2021 at the earliest. Likewise, we saw the dry run of Operation Purge in Dublin Port. Should there be a queue of traffic going into the port, it is intended that the traffic will be brought into the port around a roundabout and sent back up to the motorway to park at service stations. That is not rational or proper planning.

I wish to make two points. First, I hope we are still preparing to ensure that there are proper facilities in place in the event of a hard Brexit, which is not off the agenda. The Taoiseach said as much in his reply. As regards Rosslare Europort, can he give details of the proposed visit of an Irish delegation to meet French Government officials and officials from Le Havre on connecting the two ports? That would be very welcome. We should have vessels on standby to ensure we have such connectivity in the event of any disruption of the landbridge.

Second, we are not out of the woods in respect of the potential horrendous damage Brexit could do. It is not impossible that there will be a Nigel Farage-Boris Johnson government in place by Christmas. If that were the case, there is no guarantee that the negotiated settlement is the one that will be put to the British Parliament. It may well be the Nigel Farage view of a WTO agreement, in other words, no agreement or negotiation on a long-term, tariff-free trade arrangement with the European Union. I am interested to hear the Taoiseach's view on that. As I pointed out on the previous occasion we engaged on this, while the deal that was negotiated with Boris Johnson safeguards the essential Border issues, it is a much more detrimental deal for Ireland than the one that was done with Mrs. Theresa May in terms of long-term trade. It moves Britain away from the alignment that Mrs. May wanted. The difficult issues that will face us in the negotiations are either a Johnson government coming to power and reneging on the deal by the end of January or, even if the deal was ratified by the end of December, getting a trade deal that moves Britain further away from the alignment that allows seamless trade between Ireland and the United Kingdom.

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