Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Haughey for sharing time on this issue. It is always said that the darkest hour is before the dawn.

It certainly seems dark from this vantage point. In the UK the political "remainers" have effectively folded their cards and given up on that path.

I saw reports in the newspapers that the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade detected that fellow member states felt "gamed" and impatient about the British position of deciding that, effectively, it does not want a deal. We have seen the binary type of politics emanating from 10 Downing Street and it has become a feature that has cowed much debate in the UK, which is really unfortunate. We have also seen the UK Internal Market Bill that seeks to design an escape clause from a formal international agreement. These are indeed dark moments.

Nevertheless, this is the time for cool heads and if it is not indulgent to say so, we are very fortunate to have the Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, at the helm as he has just that capacity for staying cool in the face of enormous provocation. This is not a time for revisiting popular theses about postcolonial delusion, although I see much commentary on this in the Irish media, nor is it the time for raising the rhetoric around the constitutional status of Northern Ireland, which I have heard repeated in this House. This is a time when we must recognise that there are major economic, social and political implications at stake. We must play a game that is not provocative but which is deliberate and determined. In the Minister we have somebody who will do that.

Those who are interested in game theory will recognise some of the aggressive negotiating tactics being used. It is important to remember that the UK sends 45% of goods and services to EU markets. We are very dependent on the UK as 18% of our goods and services go there but that is nothing compared with the UK dependency on EU markets. The stakes for Britain are enormously high in this debate and we must think about how we can start to orchestrate those interests that may be damaged enormously in order to change the current views.

We must also show some level of understanding of what is going on. The UK Internal Market Bill has been staggering for lawyers as it raises the spectre of an international agreement being torn up. We need to be a little more forensic in some of consideration of the content. The UK feels it should escape the export declarations from Northern Ireland but there are such exemptions in Norway and Switzerland, so that matter may not be entirely insurmountable. In deciding the categories for onward transmission to the Republic of Ireland and thereby the EU market, the joint committee may be able to work out some resolutions. If there are genuine concerns, there may be a way forward. As well as raising our justified concern about reneging on an international agreement, we must consider the concerns that may be expressed beneath and whether they can be resolved.

On state aid, I served my term early on the European Council when Lord Cockfield, that great Tory spokesman, was the determined promoter of the Single Market and the need to move away from petty obstructions from those on the Continent in the entry to the market, including narrow-gauge wheels or 13 oz bottles of jam. He was the great advocate of harmonisation and the Single Market and he was very disparaging of those who would seek to use state aid to promote their national champions. It is a cruel irony that the UK has completely turned tail in that regard.

The British Government is currently in the dock in its own country for its competence. As the day gets nearer and the tangible economic damage that this will do to Britain gets closer, our diplomats should work slowly to probe the vulnerability in the British stance, including the risk to the financial sector and data recognition. The silence of British enterprise is remarkable even still at this late hour and we must explain in a calm way the advantages of this deal, using the voices in Scotland, Wales and the dependent territories, as they are called. We must flex the muscle of other countries, such as the US in particular, as well as others where Britain is seeking an international trade agreement after Brexit. It should be clear that the British action now jeopardises such deals.

I commend the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade on his work and ask him to persist in the determined way he has exhibited to date. There will be no vaccine for a no-deal Brexit if that virus is released. We need to do everything in our power to prevent that outcome.

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