Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise a point that my colleague in the Seanad, Senator McCallion, has raised quite a lot about the supports that are there.

What the Minister of State says about it being outside the jurisdiction and that it is a European fund for European companies is all fair in a normal scenario. This, however, is not a normal scenario. We are dealing with Brexit, with a part of our island which is now under the same customs guidance as the rest of the EU and is different from Britain. That has happened because we actually asked for it to happen, because we believed that the island had to be treated as an all-island entity. There are other things there that also apply to the North that will not apply to Britain because we recognise the importance of it. As such, we have to look at it both ways and my understanding is that there is a huge amount of goodwill across Europe for the situation in which the people of the North have found themselves, which is being taken out of Europe against their will. I would argue strongly that if a case were presented by the Government on this scenario, it would be looked on favourably. This is because we are not just talking about an ordinary jurisdiction outside of the European Union, we are talking about the North of Ireland, which already has got exceptional status in European law as far as customs and other matters are concerned. I could be wrong but I guess that the Minister never raised these issues. Even at this late stage, I ask the Minister of State to bring it to the attention of the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and to raise the point that supports are needed for companies that operate on the other side of the Border. I come from a Border constituency, Donegal, and thousands of our workers are employed on the other side of the Border, just as thousands of people from counties Derry, Tyrone and Fermanagh are employed in County Donegal or the neighbouring Border counties.

If the request has not been made, I encourage the authorities to make it. They should do so not just in relation to this issue but also to ensure that European supports, where practical and sensible, be extended to a part of this island that never wanted to leave the European Union in the first place, which voted to remain in the European Union and which, because of Tory infighting and Tory politics, has been left, particularly during the pandemic, without the European supports on which it would have been able to rely in the past.

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