Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I am quite surprised that the Tánaiste has welcomed the fact that the UK has stated it will respect all its legal undertakings under the withdrawal agreement. It is a sign of how serious this has become that we are in the position of welcoming something that should be a given. It should be an absolute given when entering an agreement that people will respect the legal undertakings. What is occurring is a sign of the difficult situation in which we find ourselves. Previous speakers alluded to this matter.

With respect to the future-relationship negotiations, I am very concerned that the UK is resisting the incorporation of guarantees on international climate change commitments into the agreement . It is also resisting the principles of the European green deal. It is important that the European Convention on Human Rights be incorporated. As the previous speaker indicated, we must have a level playing field in order to avoid a race to the bottom in environmental standards and workplace rights. A level playing field is an important counterweight to the neoliberal vision of a free market based on privatisation and deregulation. We cannot tolerate a scenario where UK-based firms could undercut EU firms as a result of less stringent competition in respect of state aid rules, lower taxes and more lax social and environmental protections. The message from the Government should be strong, namely, that we will not stand by and allow dumping, undercutting and the erosion of rights and standards that have been hard fought for and won over several decades. Verbal assurances from the United Kingdom that it will honour these values cannot be relied upon. We can be quite certain about that. A level playing field must be incorporated in binding clauses in the trade agreement; there is no question about that. It is crucial to our future and the future direction of the European Union. Any diminution of environmental or workplace standards that is allowed or tolerated will in effect be used over the coming years to reduce and erode standards and rights within the European Union, and we will see a race to the bottom. Addressing this is very important to the future direction of the European project.

I want to talk a little about the impact on trade. It is worth noting the comments of the director of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium, Mr. Aodhán Connolly, who has warned of significant potential costs associated with importing food and other products across the Irish Sea if solutions are not found. Research by the consortium shows that a single truck entering the North from Britain could be carrying as much as 1,392 different items, 500 of which could be of animal origin.

There are significant potential costs and delays associated with importing goods that could have a detrimental effect on the Northern Irish economy and also could have knock-on effects on the Republic.

Businesses will need time to prepare, all the more so as they have been exclusively focused on Covid-19 and dealing with immediate survival. We must be cognisant of the potential impacts on businesses, including farming and in particular the beef sector, and on the fishing industry. As a representative of a fishing community, I am keenly aware of the devastating social and human impact of previous European Union agreements that effectively sacrificed the interests of the Irish fishing industry. We cannot allow that to happen again. It is essential at this point that the UK Government provide details, including timelines, of the arrangements it will put in place as quickly as possible. We cannot allow the UK Government to effectively run down the clock on this, which is what appears to be happening. It does not want to give detail or engage in the full knowledge that the less time, detail and engagement there is, the better chance it has of fulfilling its aim, which is clearly to get rid of a level playing field and to have a free trade agreement on that basis. We must be strong on that point to protect the integrity of Irish industry and goods and to protect the future direction of the European Union. That is important for us and for the people of Britain and the European Union.

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