Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We are less than 100 days away from the end of the Brexit transition period. If we look at the struggles, brinkmanship and ill-preparedness on the part of the United Kingdom in its negotiations on the withdrawal agreement, it is no surprise that we are once again in a situation where all we have as we approach the precipice is a lack of certainty and clarity about where we are going. Everyone in this House has spoken about the potentially enormous impact of Brexit, particularly a no-deal Brexit, on a variety of areas. In this House and this country, we are all very alive to realities of how detrimental Brexit might be but unfortunately some of our neighbours seem to revel in the prospect of Brexit, despite the fact that it will be nothing but calamitous.

I want to focus on the areas of food and environmental standards. As I said, Brexit is far-reaching and leaches into so many different areas but I want to highlight my concerns regarding food and environmental standards. The United Kingdom Internal Market Bill includes clauses that would give Westminster power to compel the Northern Ireland Assembly to accept certain environmental and food standards as well as animal welfare standards. This goes against Britain's own policy of devolution and against the Good Friday Agreement, which allows for self-determination and self-governance of Northern Ireland by the people of Northern Ireland. At this late stage we still have no idea what sanitary and phytosanitary regime the UK will employ. This is a fundamental concern for us in the context of our ability to export and import food as well as in terms of fair trading standards and environmental standards. If there is a softening by the UK on these issues, it is going to be a problem for us because nature does not give a damn about any line on a map. We are one small island with one shared biosphere. Anything that happens up there is going to affect us down here andvice versa. We have a continuous and inseparable ecosystem on this island so whatever happens with a border, be it hard or soft, damage done on one side will leak over and affect the other side. This is going to cause all sorts of problems as we struggle with environmental protection and climate change and also in terms of the level playing field that was supposed to be part of this agreement.

It is estimated that between 80% and 90% of the UK's environmental law came from the EU and with 25% of all EU legislation estimated to relate to environmental protection, the British are going to be throwing out a hell of a lot of legislation. What is going to replace it? We do not know at this late stage. The UK Government has repeatedly stated that it will not lower environmental standards once the UK has left the EU but we need to see a commitment to no regression in its domestic legislation and in any agreement that we end up signing at the end of this 100 days.

Many Deputies have highlighted the fact that Brexit will have a profoundly negative impact on our agrifood sector. Despite growth in new markets, the UK remains our single largest trading partner and anything that impacts our ability to trade, whether that is changing rules, back sliding or as one Deputy said earlier, the actions of perfidious Albion, is going to undermine our agrifood sector, which needs to be protected.

The programme for Government contains commitments to a shared island and a new unit has been set up in the Department of the Taoiseach. It is time that we heard an update from the Taoiseach on the work that is happening there. Ireland, North and South, is very different from how it was in 1998 and 1969. Looking to the ghosts of the past is not going to help us to chart a way forward. We need to come together and talk about how we are going to live on this small shared island, this shared biosphere where the impact of Brexit will be enormous, north and south of the Border.

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