Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Let me finish. Deputy Conway-Walsh may have been talking specifically about the current British Government. I accept that but we have to remember that not every single person in the UK necessarily holds the same opinions as Boris Johnson or Dominic Cummings. We need that relationship and we need to work for it, regardless of the form Brexit takes, in order to ensure a warm and close relationship with everyone in the United Kingdom, whether in Scotland, England or Wales. I welcome the new British ambassador to Ireland and look forward to meeting him when he finishes his period of self-isolation.

I wish to pay credit to the outgoing British ambassador, Robin Barnett, and wish him well on his retirement. He was a good friend of Ireland and the EU at a difficult time.

I wish to finish my contribution by looking about our role and place within the European Union in the context of the weeks just gone and the weeks to come. The whole process in recent years has reinforced the importance of Ireland's place within the European Union. We negotiate this process not as a small island nation but as part of a union of almost 500 million people. It is the world's largest economic block. It is a union founded first and foremost on the preservation of peace. Let us not get lost talking about directives, trade negotiations, straight bananas and blue passports. Let us bring it back to what the European project is about. It is about peace. The withdrawal agreement is about protecting peace too. We may look about our role within the EU and recovery from Covid-19.

I wish to endorse every word Deputy Howlin said relating to connectivity to the Continent. I welcome the fact that operators have said there is capacity. It is no longer about simply going from Rosslare to Cherbourg or Le Harve. It is now about Santander, Portugal, Ostende, Zeebrugge and, maybe in due course, it will be Duisburg. It is about opening up to aspects of what is Ireland's largest export market. This is not the UK; it is the EU. That is where our future must be. The more we can convince companies and entities to ship direct to the Continent, the better.

Will the Minister outline what exact efforts are being made in this regard? How do we bring on board companies to show that there is a comparable alternative to the land bridge? How can we show that cost and pace can be worked on? How do we convince operators, as Deputy Howlin has said so eloquently, of the commercial viability of continuing with shipping, whether from Dublin or Cork? I agree with Deputy Howlin, as a proud Dubliner, that the future is in Rosslare. Rosslare Europort has a direct link to the train line. It has the capacity to open up the entire island.

Of course, we have to work out our interests within the EU. This is the key point. Last week or a fortnight previous when the UK Internal Market Bill was presented, we all got push notifications on a Sunday night. The British media became obsessed with this issue and it was headline and breaking news. We were told about the important compromise in Westminster between the Conservative UK Government and the rebel backbenchers. The compromise is worth absolutely nothing. The former UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, has said as much. There seems to be a belief that what happens in Westminster is the only important thing in the Brexit debate. It is not. This is a conversation between the EU and the UK. It needs to be a conversation between sovereign equals. It needs to be realised that the negotiations are between Michel Barnier and Lord Frost, not within Westminster. The difficulty for us is how we keep the interest of our colleagues in the other 26 EU member states. Brexit may be headline news in London. It may be the third item on the news here. However, the Minister and I know that our colleagues are barely paying attention any more on the Continent.

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