Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This has been a year of nothing but uncertainty. Up to now all the talk has been about Brexit, but as we know the Covid-19 pandemic has spread around the world and has made the complex process of the withdrawal of the UK from the EU even worse and has wasted time that could have been devoted to more important matters. Brexit has presented challenges that we could not imagine. It has put the future and prosperity of many of our businesses in jeopardy. It has caused uncertainty leaving businesses unable make plans or at least limited in their plans for the future.

I will take my county of Tipperary as an example. For many communities in my constituency, agriculture is the lifeblood of the local economy. It provides jobs across the board in transport, machinery hire, food production and export. The list goes on. It is vital to the flow of money locally. However, all that has been threatened with the uncertainty we now face. Our agri-sector relies heavily on its ability to export. The free movement of goods is vital in this respect. With Brexit threatening to disrupt this, there are many unanswered questions about what the future holds.

At the yesterday's meeting of the Joint Committee on Agriculture and the Marine, many of these challenges were outlined. These include compliance with customs and regulatory requirements that will increase the cost of trade, and delays in the movement of goods with the potential to disrupt the flow of trade and the supply chain. I relayed to the committee a call that came from IBEC for radical investment in our ports, particularly Rosslare. This requires infrastructure and a new vision on how upgraded infrastructure in our country can benefit the flow of trade. This is of particular importance in the two regions that straddle my constituency, the south east and the mid-west.

The N24 is a key artery route between the east and west and vice versa. It runs through my constituency but, despite its importance, it has been neglected. Its potential as a more free-flowing arterial route from one side of the country to the other, from Rosslare Port to Shannon Airport, is not being tapped into. Along with my constituents, I have been calling for this route to be upgraded to improve its ability to cater for heavy goods traffic. At the moment it is used heavily but traffic is congested in many towns on the way, especially Tipperary town. If the N24 was upgraded and given motorway status, and if bypasses or ring roads were developed near a number of those towns on the route, it would serve to improve traffic flow to our ports and the connection between east and west. It would not disimprove our infrastructure while also serving to streamline the transportation of goods across the country at a time we will need to facilitate trade in whatever way we can.

This is just one element of many that could be used for our benefit and to facilitate trade. It may require a comprehensive and immediate review of the regional development plan. I have spent much time talking to hauliers. While they have been given some advice about what might be required of them in a new trading environment, there is still no certainty about what lies ahead. Will they be stuck in queues in Kent while trying to cross the English Channel? What will happen if they have perishable goods on board? When it comes to our use of the UK land bridge post-Brexit, what agreement can be devised to ensure that whatever assurances our hauliers are given on prompt transit are not rowed back on like so much of what we have seen so far?

I want to discuss how the Covid pandemic affects this transition. The ability of our businesses to absorb a so-called Brexit hit is lower now than it has been to date. Our public finances have also taken a serious hit due to Covid. When the transition period ends, unforeseen issues may arise meaning we are operating on a new playing field. Can the Government guarantee that it will be able to provide this kind of assistance while also providing Covid supports? Can the Government outline its plans to source the money needed if this arises and assure us that the most vulnerable will not be targeted for cuts in this scenario?

I refer to how this whole process has damaged trust. The six counties in the North of this country have been used by the UK as a bargaining chip in the process of the negotiations so far. Commitments have been broken on several occasions. The interests of the people in the Six Counties who voted to remain in the EU have been ignored by the British Government, which has tried to manipulate the situation for its own economic purposes. The Six Counties are being used as leverage to stop the old imperialistic legacy of the past from fading away. The arguments and the distrust we have seen in recent years have made the case for one course of action very clear and that is the pursuit of a united Ireland.

The Government must remember that by not having a discussion on a united Ireland, it has failed to address the key stumbling block in Brexit talks over the years. It is the only plausible way of resolving the majority of the issues we are facing today.

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