Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The opening statement delivered by the Tánaiste did not go far enough. In order to protect jobs and support businesses, the Government must ensure that the right actions are taken at the right time. Action must be taken to prevent the disruption that will arise from a no-deal Brexit. One form of protection would be ensuring that a daily service is provided across the Irish Sea from Rosslare and Dublin to Cherbourg or Le Havre. That would offer protection because it would lessen the need for many struggling businesses to spend money and energy on tasks such as sanitary and phytosanitary inspections, preparing transit documents and trying to access financial guarantees in order for their valuable produce to be thrust into the unsavoury hands of the UK authorities on the land bridge route. Many businesses will undertake many hours of paperwork and spend thousands of euro because no preparation is being made on their behalf by the Government to ensure the provision of a daily direct shipping service from Rosslare Europort to mainland Europe. Such preparation would allow those companies to circumvent the arduous and costly procedures involved in transiting on the land bridge. The failure to prepare is thrusting their fate into the hands of the UK authorities and we can all see where the UK authorities are at.

Protecting jobs and supporting businesses must entail the provision of an essential daily shipping service to mainland Europe such that there is certainty of delivery and that timelines will be met, thus ensuring that businesses' commitments to their customers and reputations as Irish exporters are protected. Such a service would ensure that the value of the businesses' goods would not reduced as a result of late delivery. It is guaranteed that there will be delays on the land bridge route. What protection is afforded by a failure to provide an alternative to transiting the UK land bridge?

A daily shipping service to the European mainland would serve to support and protect jobs in Slaney Foods International in Clohamon, Irish Country Meats in Camolin and Kavanagh Meats Ireland in Enniscorthy. Those three employers provide 1,100 jobs, excluding ancillary services and the farmers who provide the raw material. Those 1,100 jobs depend on the meat product being delivered to the market on a deadline. Post Brexit, that deadline will not be met using the land bridge because it will provide anything but certainty. In fact, the only thing the land bridge will provide post Brexit is uncertainty. No buyer of which I am aware buys produce on the basis of "I will see you when I see you." Fresh food buyers wish to know when the produce can be delivered because they understand that the longer delivery takes, the less valuable the product becomes and that does not make the customer happy.

We should spare a thought for the truck drivers, the very people whose jobs the Government is protecting. Post Brexit, they will be front-line workers in the same way that doctors and nurses are for Covid: essential but scarce. Do drivers not deserve to have the best chance of going about their daily work without disruption and unnecessary and unwelcome interruptions? The best laid plans for strict driving times will be scuppered because of the failure of the Government to think ahead, prepare and do the thing that makes the most common sense, which is to provide a daily direct service from Rosslare Europort to the Continent now.

Earlier today, the Taoiseach told the House that we have the capacity. I will tell the House where the capacity should be. It is there, but goods can only leave Ireland on a direct ferry sailing on Tuesdays, Thursdays or Saturdays. We need that capacity to move to a service that is available on Mondays to Sundays, inclusive. That is what will protect the €18.2 billion of trade that is carried on the land bridge.

A haulier who was caught up in significant delays at the Port of Dover sent me a report on the matter that was published in The Irish Times. I received it yesterday. It took him 3 hours to travel 1.8 km. He was carrying pharmaceuticals worth €3.2 million in his trailer and he spent an extra ten hours in the UK. That one load was worth €3.2 million.

I refer to the common transit convention and the future of the land bridge. There is a possibility that the insurance guarantee on the insurance will be invoked, as there is no guarantee that the UK will continue to honour the convention. That could all be circumvented by making preparations and ensuring there is a daily direct ferry to the continent. If that were done, the haulier to whom I refer could travel by ferry from Ireland to France. It would avoid giving the UK any more power over us. Support and preparation are what will safeguard jobs and businesses.

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