Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am disappointed in the statements of the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton. The Minister stated he had been in touch with all the stakeholders in the transport sector. According to the information I have, that is incorrect. He has not been in touch with the Irish Road Haulage Association, IRHA, an organisation that gave hundreds of hours of their time to assist the Government in Brexit and Covid preparations. There has been no acknowledgement of the stellar performance of the licensed road haulage operators and their employees during Covid. They called for assistance several times to prevent shipping companies insisting that drivers share a bed cabin space on board ships. No assistance was forthcoming and no correspondence was answered. To their credit, the drivers' steadfast refusal to share meant that not one case of Covid has been reported in the sector. It is disturbing that there is so little regard for the sector. This was something we had hoped would end with the Minister’s predecessor, but unfortunately that does not seem to be the case. However, I am sure the Minister will make amends in his closing statement.

Is this Government going to continue to take an ostrich approach and bury its head in the sand in relation to Brexit? Why is it not moving heaven and earth to reduce the economy's reliance on the UK market and the UK land bridge? The UK Government's current actions are clearly designed to threaten the Irish economy and the Good Friday Agreement. It is using the threat of being able to cause chaos for the Irish economy to increase its negotiating strength with the European Union. That includes trying to coerce the Government to compel the EU to capitulate to UK demands. Surely the Government can see that the thing to do is not to passively live in hope that Boris Johnson and the UK Government will be reasonable and climb down. Instead, the Government must react proactively and institute measures that reduce Ireland’s vulnerability to this rogue UK Government. It is time to be proactive. The time has come to put vital daily ferries to mainland Europe in service. Doing so now would dramatically reduce the risk to Ireland’s trade with the EU. Members of the Government are not listening to warnings from the people in the know. They are talking among themselves. They are not reading the correspondence from stakeholders or if they are, they are not answering it. I have spent 30 years using the land bridge as a haulier and the Government is hiring advisers who, dare I say, have most likely never sat in a truck, never mind been to Dover port, in their lives.

I urge the Minister to read today’s UK media. All of the newspapers are carrying a story, which was purportedly leaked, that Michael Gove has written that there will be queues of 7,000 trucks post-Brexit lasting for days. He is telling them what they already know. The Tánaiste and half of this Government are busy making videos, telling people in business that we are 100 days out from Brexit and the actions they should take. The Tánaiste stated they should think about their supply chain and if they are using the land bridge of Britain to get to continental Europe, they need to think about how that is going to work and talk to their suppliers and haulage and transport companies. I will offer my advice for the umpteenth time. The Government must take its head out of the sand. The land bridge will not work and the Government needs to put in place a fast, efficient daily ferry service from Ireland to France now. What is wrong with the Government? It is telling people to think about something for which there is already a solution. It appears it is not thinking about it so I will say again that "fast and efficient" means the shortest, most viable option to mainland Europe and that comes from Rosslare to Le Havre or Cherbourg. It also needs to operate on a daily basis. That is the appropriate proactive approach we need, rather than trying to be the Stephen Spielberg of Twitter. Anyone would think the Government is waiting on a sign from God.

The flour and the sugar that is needed to bake bread in Ireland daily is imported. When the baking line is stalled because the product is sitting in a queue and people cannot bake bread, will the Minister and the rest of the Twitter gang be making videos apologising to the business owners and staff of Irish Pride in Taghmon, County Wexford? Will they make videos apologising for the fact that the price of a loaf of bread has risen to €3? That will be the result of the Government's passive attitude. Irish consumers will pay the price. What will the Minister tell the fresh fish exporters of Duncannon, Kilmore and Killybegs when the fish is in a queue in the UK rotting in a trailer? What will he tell the owners and staff of Kelly's hotel in Rosslare, the Talbot Hotel, Clayton Whites Hotel and Whitford House Hotel in Wexford town, the Riverside Park Hotel in Enniscorthy and all the other Wexford hotels when there is no more traffic coming from the UK tourists and the Government has failed to make an effort to replace those UK tourists by putting a daily direct ferry in place to mainland Europe for EU visitors to Ireland? All of this can be avoided if this Government puts a daily service to mainland Europe in place in time and that time is now.

Yesterday, I had a conversation about customs procedures which alarmed even me. I was told a document would take ten minutes to complete but I can say from 30 years of practical knowledge that it takes more like 40 minutes, which means less than two documents per hour. No one has mentioned the fact that the trade control and export system, TRACES, used by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, which carries out sanitary and phytosanitary inspections, has not even been advised to hauliers. They have been promised instruction video demonstrations but with less than four months to go until Brexit, they have received nothing. There is an opportunity for this Government to be the angels of Brexit and the Government that saved Ireland from the chaos of the UK's making. If it does not save us, it will be responsible for the demise of Ireland. Who will want to do business on an island when they cannot get their product on or off the island on a competitive timeline, one which gives certainty of delivery times? It will all be because the Government would not ensure that a daily shipping service to and from mainland Europe was in place. It is time to wake up and smell the coffee.

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